
Book . H3 




EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY: 



EXTERNAL DIVISION, 

i 

EXHIBITED IN A 

COURSE OF LECTURES, 

DELIVERED IN 

CLINTON HALL, 

IN THE WINTER OF 183J-2, UNDER THE APPOINTMENT OP 
THE UNIVERSITY OP THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 



,'BY 

CHARLES P. M'lLVAINE, D.D. 

Rector of St. Ann's Chiirch, Brooklyn,— Professor of the Evidences of 

Revealed Religion and of Sacred Antir|uitie3 in tlie University 

of Ilie City of New York. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY G. & C. & H. CARVILL, 

108 BROADWAY. 

1832. 



:bTuoi 

,M3 



Entered by the author, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, in 
the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, for the 
Soiitiiern District of New Yorii. 



/^^^ 



PRINTED BY SLEIGHT & PvO^I^nSON, 
111 NASSAU STUBET. 



r\ 



I 



EXTRACT 

From the Minutes of the Council of the University of the city ofj^ew York. 

" Resolved, That this Council has heard, with much satisfaction, 
of the success which has attended the Lectures of the Rev. C. P. 
M'llvaine and of the benefit which, it is hoped, has resulted from 
them. 

" Resolved^ That the Council cordially unites in the opinion of 
the Board of Visiters, that the publication of the Lectures would 
be an important service to the cause of truth." 



THE COUNCIL 



UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 

At whose request, the following 
Lectures were delivered, and by 
whose recommendation, they are 
submitted to the public, this volume 
is respectfully dedicated ; with the 
author's earnest prayer that the 
Lord may be pleased to use it as an 
humble auxiliary in promoting that 
christianized system of education, to 
which, as its conspicuous object, the 
University is devoted. 

Brooklyn, Sept. 12, 1832. 



PREFACE. 



The history of the following lectures may be 
given in few words. In the autumn of eighteen 
hundred and thirty-one, when the University of 
the City of New York had not yet organized its 
classes, nor appointed its instructors, it was repre- 
sented to the Council that a course of lectures on 
the Evidences of Christianity was exceedingly 
needed, and would probably be well attended by 
young men of intelligence and education. On the 
strength of such representation, the author of this 
volume was requested, by the Chancellor of the 
University, to undertake the work desired ; not, he 
is well aware, on account of any special qualifica- 



tions for a task which many others in the city 
would have executed much more satisfactorily; 
but because, having lectured on the Evidences of 
Christianity while connected with the Military 
Acadamy at West Point, he was supposed to be in 
a great measure prepared at this time for a similar 
effort. It was under a considerable misunder- 
standing of the extent to which the proposed en- 
gagement would be expected to go, that the author 
expressed a hesitating willingness to assume its 
responsibility. The next thing was the honour of 
an appointment, by the Council of the University, 
to the office of " Lecturer on the Evidences of 
Christianity." Alarmed at the prospect of so much 
additional work, but desirous of serving a rising 
and most hopeful institution, as well as of advo- 
cating the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; he 
consented to the appointment, with the expecta- 
tion of finding, in the manuscripts of the former 
course, enough preparation already made to pre- 
vent any considerable increase to his accumulated 
engagements. What was his disappointment, on 
inspecting those compositions, to find himself so 
little satisfied with their plan and whole execution, 
that instead of attempting to mend their infirmities 
and supply their deficiencies, it seemed much better 



to lay them all aside in their wonted retirement, 
and begin anew both in study and writing ! Thus 
in the midst of exhausting duties, as a parish mi- 
nister, and in a state of health by no means well 
established, he was unexpectedly committed to an 
amount of labour which, had it been all foreseen, 
he would not have dared to undertake. Mean- 
while, a class of many hundreds, from among the 
most intelligent in the community, and composed, 
to a considerable extent, of members of the " New 
York Young Men's Society for intellectual and 
moral improvement," had been formed, and was 
waiting the commencement of the course. A more 
interesting, important, or attentive assemblage of 
mind and character, no one need wish to address. 
The burden of preparation was delightfully com- 
pensated by the pleasure of speaking to such an 
audience. The lecturer could not but feel an en- 
grossing impression of the privilege, as well as 
responsibility of such an opportunity of usefulness. 
He would thankfully acknowledge the kindness of 
divine Providence, in his having been permitted and 
persuaded to embrace it, and for a measure of health, 
in the prosecution of its duties, far beyond what he 
had reason to expect. His debt of gratitude is inex- 



pressibly increased by the cheering information 
that much spiritual benefit was derived from the 
lectures by some whose minds, at the outset of the 
course, were far from the belief of the blessed gos- 
pel, as a revelation from God. 

The idea of publication did not originate with 
the author. He began the work with no such 
view. Had it not been for the favourable opinion 
of the Council of the University, as to the probable 
usefulness of the step, and the urgent advice of 
distinguished individuals of that body ; he would 
have shrunk from contributing another volume to 
a department of divinity already so well supplied 
by authors of the highest grade of learning and 
intellect. After the recent lectures of Daniel Wil- 
son, D. D., the present excellent bishop of Cal- 
cutta, not to speak of many other and earlier works 
in the same field, it will not seem surprising to the 
present author if some should think it quite pre- 
sumptuous, at least unnecessary, for a writer of 
such inferior qualifications, in every sense, to offer 
an additional publication. But all have not read, 
nor may all be expected to read the books which 
have already been issued. Nothing can be more 
conclusive ; and yet, to multitudes of readers, they 
must remain as if they were not. A work of infe- 



rior claims may find readers, and do much good, in 
consequence of local circumstances drawing atten- 
tion to its pages, where all others would be over- 
looked, Vessels of moderate draught may go up 
the tributary streams of public thought, and may 
deal advantageously with the minds of men, which 
others of heavier tonnage could never reach. Should 
such be an advantage of this unpretending publi- 
cation, its apparent presumption may be pardoned, 
and its author will, by no means, have laboured 
in vain. That many faults will be found in it, he 
cannot but anticipate. That any have arisen from 
haste, carelessness, or want of pains, he will not 
dishonour his sense of duty, however he might ex- 
cuse his understanding, by the plea. He can only 
say that he has tried to do well, and to do good. 
If, in the opinion of any qualified critic, he has suc- 
ceeded, he desires to regard it as a matter of thank- 
fulness to God, not of praise to himself. If he has 
failed, let the infirmities of the lecturer, not the 
merits of the subject, receive the blame. 

It will be observed by those who composed the 
class which the author addressed, that in this vo- 
lume are three lectures which they did not hear: 
the third, eleventh, and last ; beside a large amount 
of matter connected with the others, which, for 



want of time, was omitted in their delivery. That 
many books have been consulted in the preparation 
of all, and that the author is greatly indebted to 
the more learned labours of numerous predeces- 
sors, he need not acknowledge. 

It seems unnecessary to mention more particu- 
larly than is done in the margin of the lectures, 
the various works from which assistance or au- 
thority has been derived. Wherever quotations 
occur they are marked, and almost always cre- 
dited to their respective authors. The elaborate 
work of Lardner on the Credibility of the Gospel 
History, and the books of Josephus, being more 
frequently cited than any other, it may be well to 
mention that the edition of Josephus referred to in 
the marginal notes is that of Whiston's transla- 
tion, in one volume octavo, Lond. 1828 ; and the 
quotations from Lardner are out of the quarto edi- 
tion of his works, in five volumes, Lond. 1815, 

And now, without further preface, let this hum- 
ble attempt to promote the saving truth of Jesus 
Christ be committed to Him whose blessing alone 
can honour it. Should it receive but little fiivonr 
from man, and yet be made, in the Lord's liand, tlio 
instrument of leadin": some misjiiiidod soul from llio 



darkness and barrenness of infidelity to the pre- 
cious light and hope of the gospel, its name will 
then be written in heaven, and its unworthy author 
will have a rich reward. C. P. M. 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE I. 

Page 

Introductory Observations, . . „ . 17 



LECTURE IL 
Authenticity of the New Testament, ....... 63 

LECTURE III. 
Authenticity and Integrity of the New Testament, - - . 89 

LECTURE IV. 
Credibility of the Gospel History, 133 

LECTURE V. 
Divine Authority of Christianity, from Miracles, - - ■ -169 

LECTURE VI. 
Argument from Miracles, continued, 209 



CONTENTS, 



LECTURE VII. 

Page 

Divine Authority of Christianity, from Prophecy, - - - 249 



LECTURE VIII. 
Argument, from Prophecy, continued, 293 



LECTURE IX. 
Divine Authority of Christianity, from its Propagation, - 343 



LECTURE X. 

Divine Authority of Christianity, from its Fruits, 



LECTURE XI. 

Argument, from the fruits of Christianity, continued, 



LECTURE XII. 

Summary and AppHcation of the Argument, 



LECTURE XIII. 



Inspiration and Divine Authority of the Scriptiucs, with 

Concluding Observations, 543 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE I. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



I APPEAR before those who have come this eve- 
ning to favour me with their attention, as sustaining, 
under appointment from the University of the city 
of New York, the office of Lecturer on the Evi- 
dences of Christianity. It is but justice to 
my own feelings, to assure you that I had not 
thought of entering upon so much responsibility 
until earnestly requested to do so by respected 
individuals belonging to the council of that insti- 
tution. I am not without much apprehension of 
having ventured far beyond my qualifications in 
acceding to their desires. When I think of the 
many in this city of much superior furniture of 
3 



18 LECTURE I. 

mind and spirit, to whom the office might have 
been intrusted, and of my own daily and engrossing 
occupations in the duties of the ministry, leaving 
so little time or strength for any other occupation, 
however important, it is a matter almost of alarm 
that I find myself committed to a series of lectures 
for which the very best intellect, the soundest judg- 
ment, and the most deliberate study, are so much 
needed. But having undertaken the work, I trust 
the Lord has ordered the step in wisdom, and, if I 
seek his guidance, will enable me to go forward in 
a strength above my own ; so that I may be the in- 
strument, under his hand, of contributing something 
to promote the improvement and everlasting hap- 
piness of those to whom I may have the pleasure 
of speaking. 

The present lecture will be exclusively of an 
introductory kind. I pause at the threshold, in re- 
membrance of the word and promise of God : " In 
all thy loays acknowledge Him^ and He shall direct 
thy steps" I would devoutly acknowledge God as 
the omniscient witness in this undertaking ; the 
only source of wisdom, strength, and blessing, 
" from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, 
and all just works do proceed." May his Holy 
Spirit, through the mediation of his Son, our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who is '' the w^ay, the truth, and the 
life," " God, blessed forever," condescend to guide 
our way and help our infirmities, that all may see 
and embrace the tuutii. 



LECTURE I. 19 

'rlie subject to which we are to direct our at- 
tention, has engaged the powers of wise, learned, 
and good men, in almost all ages since the promul- 
gation of Christianity. Minds of every class, and 
in all departments of intellectual occupation, have 
directly or indirectly, by design or unwittingly, 
contributed materials for its elucidation. Thus it 
has come to pass that the difficulty of an appro- 
priate exhibition of the evidences of Christianity is 
rather on the side of selection and arrangement 
and the just proportioning of arguments, than of 
their sufficient multiplication. To give the va- 
rious branches of the subject their just measure 
of relief and prominence ; to determine what should 
be displayed strongly and completely, and what 
should be sketched with a lighter pencil, and 
placed in the background of the picture ; to adjust 
Che numerous parts in such symmetry as will pre- 
sent the whole with the most undivided and over- 
coming effect, is a difficulty of no little magnitude, 
where attention to space and time is of so much 
consequence as in the present undertaking. The 
nicest discrimination, the most logical taste, and a 
talent for extensive combination, may here find 
room for the exercise of all their powers. The dan- 
ger is that one will lose himself amidst the wide 
spread and accumulated treasures of illustration 
and evidence ; that he will fail so entirely in their 
classification as to see and exhibit them confusedly 
and unjustly, and for want of a good discipline 
among his own thoughts will lead out his forces 



20 LECTURE I, 

in feeble detail, instead of forming them into com- 
pact masses, and meeting the enemy on every side 
with a self-sustained combination of strength. 

Before we proceed to the main question on which 
our subsequent lectures are to be employed, it 
will be well to call your attention to, 

I. Hie high importance of the investigation on 
which we are about to enter. You are to unite with 
me in examining the grounds on which the religion 
of the gospel claims to be received, to the exclu- 
sion of every other religion in the world, as con- 
taining the only way of duty and the only founda- 
tion of a sinner's hope of salvation ; so that you 
may be enabled to answer satisfactorily to your 
own consciences and to all who may ask a reason 
of your belief, this great question : Is the religion 
of Jesus Christ as exhibited in the New Testament^ 
a revelation from God^ and consequently possessed 
of a sovereign right to universal faith and obe- 
dience ? 

There are considerations intrinsically belonging 
to this question which place it in an aspect of un- 
rivalled importance. 

We must have the religion of Christ or none. A 
very little reflection will make it apparent, that 
the question as to the truth of Christianity is not 
one of preference between two rival systems of 
doctrine, having conflicting claims and nearly ba- 
lanced arguments and benefits ; it is not whether 
the gospel is more true and salutary than some 
other mode of religion, which though inferior would 



LECTURE I, 21 

still secure many of the most essential and sub- 
stantial benefits for which religion is desirable. 
But it is no other than the plain and solemn ques- 
tion, shall we believe in the faith of Christ, or in 
none ? Shall we receive and be comforted by the 
light which the gospel has thrown over all our 
present interests and future prospects ; or shall our 
condition in this life — our relation to the future — 
what we are to be, and what we are to receive 
hereafter and forever, be left in appalling, impene- 
trable darkness 1 Such is the real question when 
we inquire whether Christianity is a revelation 
from God. Do any ask the reason 7 Because if such 
be the divine origin and authority of the religion 
of Christ, there can be no other religion. It claims 
not only to stand — ^but to stand alone. It de- 
mands not only that we believe it — but that, in 
doing so, we consider ourselves as denying the truth 
of every other system of faith. Like the one 
living and true God, whose seal and character it 
bears, it is jealous, and will not share its honour 
with another ; but requires us to believe that, as 
there is but one Lord, so there is but one faith — 
the truth as it is in Jesus. On the other hand, if 
Christianity be not of divine origin, it is no reli- 
gion; its essential doctrines must be false; its 
whole structure baseless. Suppose then, for a 
moment, that such were the case, what could we 
substitute for the gospel 7 We must either plunge 
into the abyss of atheism, or find something in the 
regions of paganism that would answer; or be 



22 LECTURE I. 

content with the religion of Mahommcd; or else 
find what our nature wants in that which is un- 
justly distinguished as the Religion of JVature, in 
other words, we must become Deists. But is there a 
creed among the countless absurdities of pagan belief 
and worship which any of us could be persuaded 
to adopt ? Could we be convinced of the prophetic 
character of the Arabian impostor, and receive as 
of divine authority the professed revelations and 
unrighteous features of the Koran, after having re- 
jected such a book as the New Testament, and 
such evidences as those of Jesus 7 Where else 
could we flee? To atheism? But that is the 
gulf in which all religions are lost. — Darkness is 
on the face of the deep. Nothing remains that does 
not acknowledge the divine revelation of Chris- 
tianity, but the self-styled religion of nature — 
deism. And what shall be said of this ? I am un- 
able to give an account of it more definite than 
that it is the denial of Christianity, on the one 
liand, and of atheism, on the other, and is to be 
found somewhere between these two infinitely dis- 
tant extremes ; but is never stationary, changing 
place with the times ; accommodating its character 
to the disposition of every disciple, and permitting 
any one to assume the name of Deist who will only 
believe these two articles of faith — tJiat there is a 
God J and that Christianity is untrue. Such is the 
religion which, according to Paine, " teaches us 
without the possibility of being mistaken all that 
is necessary or })roj)cr to be known." And yet 



LECTURE I. 23 

notwithstandingthis boasted fulness and infallibility 
of instruction, there is no agreement among Deists 
as to what their natural religion consists in, or as to 
the truth of what some of them consider its most 
fundamental doctrines. Their chief writers are 
altogether at variance as to whether there is any 
distinction between right and wrong, other than in 
the law of the land, or the customs of society ; 
whether there is a Providence; whether God is 
to be worshipped in prayer and praise, or the prac- 
tice of virtue is not the only worship required; 
whether the practice of virtue forbids or en- 
courages deceit, suicide, revenge, adultery, and all 
uncleanness ; whether the soul is mortal or immor- 
tal; whether God has any concern with human 
conduct. Now without spending a moment upon 
the question as to what evidence or what adapta- 
tion to the wants of men and of sinners, deism 
could pretend to, after the rejection of evidence 
and excellence such as those of the gospel ; let me 
ask whether deism can with any propriety be 
called religion ? Does that deserve the name of a 
system of religious faith which has no settled doc- 
trine upon the most essential points of belief and 
practice 7 which may acknowledge as many con- 
tradictory forms, at the same moment, as it has 
disciples, and never could remain long enough in 
one position or under one countenance for the most 
skilful pencil to take its portrait ? But aside from 
all this, it is too notorious to be argued, that what- 
ever pretensions may have been advanced by 



24 LECTURE 1. 

Deists to something like a theory of religious be- 
lief, it is at best a mere theory ; utterly powerless 
in practice, except to liberate its disciples from all 
conscientious restraint upon their passions, and 
promote in the public mind the wildest licentious- 
ness as to all moral obligation. Substitute deism 
for Christianity, and none acquainted with the 
nature or history of man can help acknowledging 
that as to all the beneficial influence of religion 
upon heart and life, in promoting either the moral 
purity of individuals, or the happiness of society, 
we shall have no religion at all. When have 
Deists ever maintained a habit of private, family, 
or public worship 7 Attempts have been made 
among them to keep up some mode of congrega- 
tional service, but total failure, in every instance, 
has proved how forced was the effort, and how 
little it would have been thought of, had it not 
been for the surrounding influence of Christianity. 
The first attempt was by a man in England, who 
styled himself the Priest of Nature. He relapsed 
from being a dissenting preacher in England, of an 
orthodox creed, to socinianism, thence to deism ; 
after which he set up in London a house of worship, 
formed a liturgy, was patronised by some persons 
of influence, preached and collected some disci- 
ples. But most of his people became Atheists ; 
and after an experiment of four years, the con- 
gregation was reduced to nothing, funds failed, 
and the effort was abandoned. The most formi- 
dable enterprise in this way took place in France 



LECTURE I. 25 

during the revolution. Having found by some ex- 
perience that to acknowledge no God was to have 
no law; and to be without religious institutions was 
to want civilization and peace ; certain persons 
distinguished for learning, and calling themselves 
Tlieophilanthropists^ set up a society for the worship 
of God on the principles of deism. The desolated 
churches of Paris were given for their object. A 
directory of deistical worship was published, con- 
taining prayers and hymns. Lectures were substi- 
tuted for sermons. The ceremonies were simple, 
tasteful, and classical. Music added its charms. 
The form of worship was sent into all parts of the 
country, and great exertions were made by the 
powers of the state to get up this religion in every 
town. Circumstances were exceedingly propitious 
to the enterprise. Christianity had been banished. 
Her witnesses were in sackcloth. She had none 
to oppose themselves to the scheme of her enemies. 
The country was sick of the horrors of atheism. 
Some religion was demanded by public feeling. 
This contrivance had nothing in it offensive to the 
sinner, while it seemed to be skilfully adapted to the 
people and the times. Moreover, it was patronised 
by government, and conformed to by the learned. 
The ceremonies were well performed — the musical 
accompaniments excellent. But all would not do. 
No sooner had novelty ceased, than the assemblies 
were thinned. The trifling expenses of music and 
apparatus could not be raised out of the liberality 
of the people. The society was split up with dis- 
4 



26 LECTURE I. 

sentions, some refusiiii^ the manual of worsliip ; 
others complaining against the lecturers as aimir»g 
at too much power; others demanding that the 
creed of the society should be more liberal, and 
allow a greater latitude of belief. None at last 
could be got to lecture. To keep up the popular 
interest, and to escape the charge of bigotry, reli- 
gious festivals were appointed, in which a union of 
service was attempted to be formed between Jews, 
Protestants, Catholics, Deists, and Atheists. There 
were festivals in honour of Socrates, of Rousseau, 
and of Washington. At one of these a banner in- 
scribed with the name Morality was carried by 
a man notorious as a professor of atheism. But all 
would not do. The great principle of religion was 
wanting. There was no devotional spirit. The 
body was dead, and therefore soon tumbled to dust. 
A short time after, a counsellor of France, in a 
public address, declared the result of the experi- 
ment in these words : " For want of a religious 
education for the last ten years, our children are 
Avithout any ideas of a Divinity, without any notion 
of what is just and unjust; hence arise barbarous 
manners, hence a people become ferocious. Alas ! 
what have we gained by deviating from the path 
pointed out by our ancestors? What have we 
gained by substituting vain and abstract doctrines 
ibrtlie creed w^hich actiiatoil the minds of Turenne, 
Fenelon, and Pascal ?" •* 1 cannot (.unit, in conncc- 

* t'or more particulars, sec Aloxunclcr'ii Evidciiceti — Dwiglrt':? 
Sonuoua, 1. 191. 



LECTURE I, 27 

tion with these striking confessions, the description 
given by one of the most famous infidels in those 
times, of all that class of philosophers whose views 
and schemes we have been noticing. Thus writes 
Rousseau : " I have consulted our philosophers, I 
have perused their books, I have examined their se- 
veral opinions, I have found them all proud, posi- 
tive, and dogmatizing even in their pretended scep- 
ticism, knowing every thing, proving nothing, and 
ridiculing one another ; and this is the only point in 
which they concur, and in which they are right. 
If you count their number, each one is reduced to 
himself; they never unite but to dispute. I con- 
ceived that the insufficiency of the human under- 
standing was the first cause of this prodigious diver- 
sity of sentiment, and that pride was the second. 
If our philosophers were able to discover truth, 
which of them would interest himself about it ? 
Where is the philosopher who for his own glory 
would not willingly deceive the whole human race ? 
Where is he who in the secret of his heart proposes 
any other object than his own distinction? The 
great thing for him is to think differently from other 
people. Under pretence of being themselves the 
only people enlightened, they imperiously subject 
us to their magisterial decisions, and would fain 
palm upon us, for the true causes of things, the un- 
intelligible systems they have erected in their own 
heads. Whilst they overturn, destroy, and trample 
under foot, all that mankind reveres ; snatch from 
the afflicted the onlv comfort left them in their 



28 LECTURE I. 

misery ; from the rich and great the only curb that 
can restrain their passions; tear from the heart 
all remorse of vice, all hopes of virtue ; and still 
boast themselves the benefactors of mankind. 
'■ Truth/ they say, ' is never hurtful to man.' I 
believe that as well as they; and the same, in 
my opinion, is a proof that what they teach is not 
the truth."* Such are the singular expressions 
of a noted infidel, into whose mind the truth 
sometimes forced an entrance, in spite of all his 
levity of mind and profligacy of life. They are the 
confessions of one of the chief actors in the farce - 
of natural religion, and by leading us behind the 
scenes, display in a most impressive light, that if 
deism be the only substitute of Christianity, we 
must have no religion or that of Jesus. So that, 
in examining the evidences of Christianity, we 
should solemnly feel that the question before us is 
of no less magnitude than whether life and immor- 
tality have been brought to light by the gospel, 
or they are still involved in deep and confounding 
darkness; whether religion is revealed in the 
Bible, or every thing on earth under the name of 
religion is false and impotent. Now, when it is 
considered what desolation would sweep at 
once over all the interests of society, were the 
restraint of religion withdrawn from the flood- 
gates of human corruption ; what immense be • 

* Gandolphy's Defence of the Ancicnl Faith : fjuotcil in Cire- 
govy's Letters, i., p. p. 6 and 7. 



LECTURE I. 29 

nefits have ensued, and must ensue, even by the 
confession of some of its most violent opposers, 
from the diffusion of the gospel ; what happy ef- 
fects upon the character and present happiness of 
its genuine disciples it has always produced ; re- 
forming their lives, purifying their hearts, elevating 
their affections, healing the wounds of the guilty , 
taking away the sting of death, and lighting even 
the sepulchre with a hope full of glory ; when it is 
considered what high claims the gospel asserts to 
an unlimited sovereignty over all our affections 
and faculties, requiring our entire submission, pro- 
mising to every devout believer eternal life, and 
to all that refuse its claims everlasting woe : it 
must at once be evident that the subject before 
us is no matter of mere intellectual interest, 
but one in which every expectant of eternity 
has an immeasurable stake. No mind has any 
right to indifference here. Without the most 
wonderful folly no mind can be indifferent 
here. Whether the claims of the gospel are the 
claims of God is a question to which in point of 
importance no other can pretend a comparison, 
except this one — Believing in those claims^ am I 
surrejidered to their governance 7 

But I speak to a great many who have no dif- 
ficulty on this head, being fully satisfied that the 
gospel of Christ is a divine revelation. What con- 
cern have they with the investigation before us 7 
" Much every way," The question for them to ask, 
is, on irhat grounds are we satisfied 7 Arc we he- 



30 LECTURE T, 

lievers in cliristianily because we 7rcrc horn of be- 
lieving 2)ttTents, and have always lived in a Christian 
country ; or because ice have considered the excellence 
and leeighed the proofs of this religion, and are in- 
telligently 2^&i'suaded that it deserves our reliance 7 
I am well aware that there are many truly devoted 
followers of Christ who have never made the evi- 
dences of Christianity their study, and in argument 
with an infidel, would be easily confounded by su- 
perior skill and information ; but whose belief ne- 
vertheless is, in the highest degree, that of rational 
conviction, since they possess in themselves the best 
of all evidence that the gospel of Christ is " the 
power and wisdom of God," having experienced 
its transforming, purifying, elevating, and enlight- 
ening efficacy upon their own hearts and charac- 
ters. Did such believers abound, Christianity 
would be much less in need of other evidence. 
Were all that call themselves Christians thus ex- 
perimentally convinced of the preciousness of the 
gospel, I would still urge upon them the duty and 
advantage of studying as far as possible the various 
arguments which illustrate the divinity of its ori- 
gin. I would urge it on considerations of personal 
pleasure and spiritual improvement. There is a 
rich feast of knowledge and of devout contempla- 
tion to be found in this study. The serious be- 
liever, who has not pursued it, has yet to learn 
witli what wonderful and impressive light the God 
of the gospel has manifested its truth. Its evi- 
dences are not only convincing, but dcligh( fully 



LECTURE I. 31 

plain ; astonishingly accumulated, and of immense 
variety, as well as strength. He who will take the 
pains not only to pursue the single line of argu- 
ment which may seem enough to satisfy his own 
mind ; but devoutly to follow up, in succession, all 
those great avenues which lead to the gospel as 
the central fountain of truth, will he presented, at 
every step, with such evident marks of the finger 
of God; he will hear from every quarter such 
reiterated assurances of: " ^/iis is the way: walk 
thou in it ;" he will find himself so enclosed on every 
hand by insurmountable evidences shutting him 
up unto the faith of Christ, that new views will 
open upon him of the real cause and guilt and 
danger of all unbelief; new emotions of gratitude 
and admiration will arise in his heart for a revela- 
tion so divinely attested ; his zeal will receive 
a new impulse to follow and promote such hea- 
veidy light. 

But I would urge this study on all serious be- 
lievers, who have the means of pursuing it, as a 
Diatter of duty. It is not enough that they are well 
satisfied. They have a cause to defend and pro- 
mote, as well as a faith to love and enjoy. It is en- 
joined on them, by the authority of their Divine 
Master, that they be ready to give to every man 
that asketh them, a reason of the hope that is in 
them. They must be able to answer intelligently 
the cjuestion: Why do you believe in Christianity 7 
For this purpose, it is not enough to be able to 
speak of a sense of the truth, arising from an in- 



32 LECTURE I. 

ward experience of its power and blessedness. 
This is excellent evidence for one's own mind ; 
but it cannot be felt or understood by an unbe- 
liever. The Christian advocate must have a know- 
ledge of the arguments by which infidelity may be 
confounded; as well as an experience of the benefits 
for which the gospel should be loved. To obtain 
this in proportion to his abilities, he is bound by 
the all-important consideration that the religion of 
Jesus cannot be content while one soul remains in 
the rejection of her light and life. She seeks not 
only to be maintained, but to bring all mankind to 
her blessings. The benevolence of a Christian should 
stimulate him to be well armed for the controversy 
with unbelievers. Benevolence, while it should 
constrain the infidel most carefully to conceal his 
opinions lest others be so unhappy as to feel their 
ague and catch their blight, should invigorate the 
believer with the liveliest zeal to bring over his 
fellow-creatures to the adoption of a faith so glo- 
rious in its hopes and so ennobling in its hilluencc. 
Even on the supposition that cliristianity were 
false, unspeakably better sliould we think it to be 
deluded by consolations which, though groundless, 
would be still so precious ; than enlightened by an 
infidelity which shrouds its disciples in such dark- 
ness, and drowns them in such confusion. 

But if such are the weighty considerations which 
should induce an experienced Christian to study 
the evidences of Christianity, while he carries in 
his own breast the strongest of all assurances of 



LECTURE I. 33 

its having the witness of the Spirit of God, how 
much more should this subject receive the atten- 
tion of that numerous portion of the population of 
a Christian land who while they are called Chris- 
tians, have never experienced in their hearts the 
blessedness of the gospel. These are eminently- 
dependent on this study for all rational and stead- 
fast belief. Being destitute of the anchor obtained 
by an inward sense of the divine excellence of 
the truth as it is in Jesus, they must spread their 
sails to the influence of external evidence, or be 
liable to be tossed about with every wind of doc- 
trine, and wrecked against the cliffs of infidelity. 
It is a matter of great importance that the atten- 
tion of this class should be much more extensively 
obtained to the proofs of the religion in which they 
profess to believe. Multitudes of men, well in- 
formed on other subjects, are believers, for hardly 
any other reason than because their parents were 
so, and the fashion of society is on this side. The 
same considerations that make them Christians in 
this land, would have made them enemies of 
Christianity in others : Pagans in India, Moham- 
medans in Turkey. They can give a better reason 
for every other opinion they profess, than for their 
acknowledgment of the gospel of Christ. The 
efforts of infidels, combining ingenious sophistry 
with high pretensions to learning, and coming into 
alliance w ith strong dispositions of human nature, 
have an open field, and must be expected to do a 
fearful work among minds thus undisciplined and 
5 



34 LECTURE I. 

unarmed. It is only in the lowest possible sense 
of the word that they can receive the name of be- 
lievers. Instead of adding strength to the cause of 
Christianity, by their numbers, they rather em- 
barrass it by their ignorance of its weapons, and 
bring it into disrepute by the ease with which 
they are entrapped in the snares of the enemy. 
They have no conception what a truth that is 
which they so carelessly acknowledge; how im- 
jwessively it is true; with what awful authority it is 
invested ; what a wonder is involved in professing 
to believe and refusing to obey it. Do I speak to 
any who are thus situated? I would earnestly 
exhort them, for their own satisfaction and stead- 
fastness as believers in revelation, for the purpose 
of realizing how solemnly the living God has called 
them to submit as well as assent, to the gospel of 
Christ, and for the honour of a religion which so 
abounds in the best of reasons, to make a serious 
study of the evidences of Christianity. 

To any whose minds are not settled with regard 
to this momentous question ; or who consider them- 
selves as having arrived at a definite opinion 
against tlie divine authority of the gospel, need I 
say a word to show why tkcy^ of all others, should 
give the subject in view their most serious and 
diligent attention 7 Suppose they should become 
fixed in the rejection of Christianity, and to the 
influence of their example on the side of infidelity, 
should add the efl'ort of argument, tending to 
weaken the faith of others, and to increase the 



LECTURE I. 35 

number of enemies to Christ; and finally, should 
be convinced on the verge of the grave (as many 
of this mind have been most painfully convinced), 
or in eternity, should have it discovered to them 
that what they have been setting at nought was 
no less than God's own revelation, the gospel of 
him who cometh to judge the quick and dead ; and 
that what they had embraced, and led others to 
embrace, in its stead, was only a miserable 
offspring of human pride and folly, a spirit of de- 
lusion and eternal destruction ; what then would 
seem the importance of a serious application 
of mind and heart to this study; the madness 
of treating it with indifference, or pursuing it 
without the strictest impartiality ? That such a 
discovery is at least as likely as the contrary, even 
infidels, in their continual declarations that all be- 
yond the grave is unknown, have given impressive 
confessions. That it is at least exceedingly proba- 
ble, independently of positive evidence, the unbe- 
liever cannot but fear when he surveys the history 
of the world, and sees what minds and what 
hearts, what men of learning and of holiness have 
been ready to suffer any earthly loss or pain, rather 
than be unassociated with the eternal blessedness 
of the discipleship of Christ. 

I have now exhibited something of the incom- 
parable importance of the question before us, as 
considered hy itself. There is an additional im- 
portance in its present investigation, arising out of 
the peculiar character of the present times. 



36 LECTURE I. 

We rejoice with others in the belief that this age, 
in comparison with all before it^ merits distinction 
as an age of freedom. We rejoice that it is an age 
of freedom, as well in the investigation of all truth 
as in the assertion of all political rights. But what 
is called the spirit of freedom is not every where 
identical with the cause of truth and right. In one 
region, it is the calm, deliberate determination to 
be governed only by just and equal laws; in ano- 
ther, it is the furious, desolating despiser of all 
laws, but those of one's own passion and selfish- 
ness. This is seen, as well in the discussion of 
religious truth, as in the vindication of assumed 
principles of civil liberty. There are certain just 
and necessary laws to govern us in reasoning, as 
much as in acting ; to regulate the investigation of 
moral and religious, as well as physical and poli- 
tical subjects. True liberty of mind consists in the 
right of being governed by these laws, and no 
other ; and at the same time asserts their absolute 
necessity. But there is a spirit abroad which, 
under the name of freedom of opinion, would set 
at defiance all the fundamental laws of reasoning, 
and denounce, as the oflspring of intellectual des- 
potism, whatever principles of moral evidence are 
at variance witli itself. This is licentiousness ; not 
freedom. It is the enemy of law^ not of opj)rcssion : 
the very menial of mental degradation, instead of 
what it boasts itself, tlic promoter of manly, ele- 
vated, independent intellect. Tliis spirit of evil is 
greatly on the increase, because tlie name and 



LECTURE I, 37 

boast of freedom are circulating far more rapidly in 
this world, than the knowledge of its character or 
the possession of its blessings; because it is so 
much easier for the mass of society to burst at 
once the whole body of law by which mind is re- 
strained, than to separate between the precious 
and the vile ; and chiefly because with the many, 
there is too little reflection and too little moral 
principle, when religion is in question, to appre- 
ciate the important difference between the oppres- 
sion of opinion in matters of reason, and the just 
government of reason in matters of opinion. No- 
thing, in truth, has so promoted the freedom of 
thought, of opinion, and of action, as Christianity. 
If any thing, under her name, has been guilty of 
the opposite, it has been, so far forth, the corrup- 
tion of her character and the denial of her prin- 
ciples. Pure Christianity has ever proclaimed 
liberty to the captive, as well in mental as in 
physical slavery. The ages of the purest freedom 
have been those of her greatest advancement. She 
courts investigation when it is free; but rejects it 
when licentious. She is the patroness of law, and 
will be judged only by law. Bring her trial to the 
judgment seat of that inductive philosophy which 
one of her own children first illustrated, and which, 
on other subjects, the world has learned to use so 
well and prize so highly : let her be judged hj the 
evidence of fact, and she is satisfied. But this 
reasonable privilege it is more than ever the spirit 
of self constituted philosophers, in their loud decla- 



38 LECTURE I. 

mation against tlie slavery of opinion, and their 
licentious rebellion against all the laws of reason- 
ing, to refuse. Hence the greater importance that 
our present subject, in all its departments, from 
the most fundamental principles of evidence, to the 
highest point of inductive argument, should be tho- 
roughly studied by all whose interest it is to know, 
and whose duty it is to vindicate, the truth. 

But there is one more consideration, in connec- 
tion with the present age, illustrating the peculiar 
importance of the study you are now commencing. 
The evidences of Christianity, while specially as- 
sailed, in these times, with a licentiousness and 
effrontery which the dignity of no truth can coun- 
tenance, and the chastity of religious truth should 
never meet, are favoured, at the same time, with 
advantages for convincing illustration such as no 
preceding age ever furnished. Time, while it has 
impaired the strength of none of our ancient argu- 
ments, has greatly increased the weight of some, 
and has added, and is daily adding, new auxiliaries 
to a body of proof which its enemies have never 
ventured to attack in front. Every new year, in 
the age and trials of our holy faith, is an additional 
evidence that, like the pyramids of Blemphis, it was 
made to endure. It wears well. Christianity has 
been journeying, for the last eighteen hundred 
years, through unceasing trials. While as yet an 
infant in a land of almost Egyptian darkness, a 
Jewish Pharaoh attempted to strangle her in the 
cradle. She grew up in contempt and poverty, 



LECTURE I. 39 

and began her course, like Israel of old, through a 
Red Sea of relentless persecution. Bitter waters 
a\Yaited her subsequent progress. Amalek with 
all the principalities and powers of earth, during 
more than three centuries, opposed her march. 
Fiery serpents in the wilderness of sin have ever 
been stinging at her feet. The world has opened 
no fountain, nor vouchsafed any bread to sustain 
her. What alliances the nations have ever made 
with her cause have only given them the greater 
power to encumber and divide her strength. Her 
drink has been drawn from the rock ; her bread 
has been gathered in the desert. Nothing that 
malice, or learning, or power, or perseverance, 
could do to arrest her goings, has been wanting. 
Even treachery in her own household has often 
endeavoured to betray her into the hands of the 
enemy. No age has encountered her advance with 
such a dangerous variety of force ; or with a more 
boastful confidence of success, than the present. 
And yet in none, since that of the primitive Chris- 
tians, has her triumph been so glorious, or her 
conquest so extensive. At a time of life when, 
considering her fiery trials, one ignorant of her 
nature would expect to see her wrinkled with age 
and crippled with manifold infirmities, it may be 
said of her, with perfect truth, that though for 
more than eighteen hundred years she has been 
journeying through conflicts and trials innumera- 
ble, her eye is not dim^ nor her natural force 
abated. She remains unchanged by time, the same 



40 LECTURE I. 

precisely as when first proclaimed in the streets of 
Jerusalem. The shield of faith, the breastplate of 
righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the sword 
of the spirit, are neither broken nor decayed, hut as 
ready, as in the beginning to go forth " conquering 
and to conquer." This long and hard experiment 
proves that she is made for eternity. It is the pri- 
vilege of our age to appreciate the evidence of this 
with more satisfaction than any preceding it. But 
how different, this sublime immutability of Chris- 
tianity, so much like the eternity of God, from the 
childish fickleness of infidelity. What is the his- 
tory of infidelity, but a history of changes 7 Where 
is the resemblance between the writings of its 
modern and those of its ancient disciples ? What 
Celsus and Porphyry attempted to maintain against 
primitive Christianity, none at present would 
think of advocating ; while the positions and rea- 
sonings of recent infidels would have been subjects 
of ridicule among their earliest brethren. " The doc- 
trines w^hich Herbert and Tindal declared to be so 
evident that God could not make them more evi- 
dent, were wholly given up as untenable by 
Hume ; and the scepticism of Hume sustained no 
higher character in the mind of D'Alembert. Mere 
infidelity gave up natural religion, and atheism 
mere infidelity. Atheism is the system at present 
in vogue. What will succeed it, cannot be fore- 
seen. One consolation, however, attends the sub- 
ject, and that is : no other system can be so 



LECTURE I. 41 

groundless, so despicable, or so completely ruinous 
to the morals and happiness of mankind."* 

But there is another aspect in which the study 
of the evidences of Christianity is presented as es- 
pecially interesting, in connection with the present 
age. This is an age peculiarly distinguished for 
scientific research and discovery. Never did science 
travel so widely, explore so deeply, analyze so 
minutely, compare so critically the present with 
the past, principles with facts ; histories of ancient 
times, with monuments of ancient things ; truths 
of revealed religion, with results of experimental 
philosophy. And what is the consequence? Has 
the Pentateuch suffered by him who found the 
key, and applied it to the hieroglyphical memo- 
rials on the marbles and porphyries of Egypt? 
Did the geological researches of the lamented 
Cuvier enfeeble his belief in the Mosaic history ?t 

I venture to say there never was an age in which 
it could be asserted, with so much practical wit- 
ness, that science and every extension of human 
knowledge are strengthening and multiplying the 
evidences of Christianity. Add to this, the ever 
acc^umulating force of the argument from prophecy, 
a source of evidence in which we exceed by far 

* Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 

t It is an interesting fact, well worthy of being recorded, that 
Cuvier, whose death has been recently announced, was to have 
presided at the next annual meeting of the Bible Society of Paris ; 
and had proposed, as the topic of his address, the agreement bettvcen 
the JWosaic history and the modern discoveries in geology. 

6 



42 LECTURE I. 

the primitive times of the gospel, and which must 
be increasing as long as one prediction of the 
Bible remains to be fulfilled. Then consider 
what new exhibitions the present age of signal 
enterprise, in all things, has furnished, and is daily 
presenting, of the power attendant upon the gos- 
pel to overcome every obstacle, and make the 
moral desert a garden, and savages meek and lowly 
of heart. Look at the missionary stations of the 
Pacific and of Hindoostan, and among our own 
frontier tribes. There it will be seen that Christian- 
ity has still her apostles, her martyrs, her con- 
quests. The idol cast to the ground; the idol 
temple purged of its pollutions, and consecrated to 
Jehovah; the multitude, once naked devotees of 
demons, now clothed and in their right mind, and 
sitting at the feet of Jesus ; these are some of our 
additional testimonies to the gospel, that her arm 
is not shortened that it cannot save. But they are 
not all. Every new traveller into regions hitherto 
but little known, as he developes the condition of 
nations destitute of the gospel, increases our evi- 
dence of the utter helplessness of human reason, 
and the total prostration of human nature, without 
the light which we enjoy, and, consequently, our 
evidence of the universal need of a revelation like 
ours, as well as of the benefits which have followed 
in the train of clu'istianity wherever she has been 
received. And last, but not least, our experience 
of the tender mercies of infidelity is more impres- 
sive than that of preceding ages. Its nature, spirit. 



LECTURE I, 43 

personal and public consequences have now liad 
time to speak out, and make a full display of their 
benefits to all classes of mankind. Our times have 
seen enough ; any of us have heard enough to form 
some adequate idea of what society would be fa- 
voured with, in personal consolations ; in domestic 
peace and purity ; in public security and order, 
should the principles of infidelity be generally 
adopted as the basis of individual, family, and na- 
tional government. 

I have now endeavoured to illustrate the import- 
ance of a diligent attention to the great subject we 
have undertaken to treat, by considerations arising 
out of its own intrinsic nature, and from its special 
aspect as associated with the distinctive character 
of the present age. I will occupy but a little while 
longer in speaking of, 

II. The imjjortance of strict attention to the spirit in 
ivhich ive should examine the evidences of Christianity. 

" Blessed (said the Saviour) is he whosoever shall 
not be offended in me." There is a great deal in 
the religion of Jesus at which the natural disposi- 
tions of man are offended. He is proud — ^the 
gospel demands humility ; revengeful — the gospel 
demands forgiveness. Man is prone to set his af- 
fections on things on the earth ; the gospel requires 
him to set them on those which are above. He is 
wedded to self-indulgence, glories in being his 
own master, idolizes himself, encourages self-de- 
pendence, boasts his own goodness, lives without 
God in the world. All this the gospel peremptorily 



44 LECTURE I. 

condemns ; require.s him to repent of it, to deny 
himself, renounce all right over himself, give up 
his will to that of God, live for the Lord Jesus, 
and lean upon and glory in him alone as all his 
strength, hope, and righteousness. Hence it is 
evident that the natural heart and the precepts of 
Christianity are directly at variance. " The mys- 
tery of an incarnate and crucified Saviour must 
necessarily confound the reason and shock the 
prejudices, of a mind which will admit nothing that 
it cannot perfecly reduce to the principles of phi- 
losophy. The whole tenor of the life of Christ, the 
objects he pursued, and the profound humiliation 
he exhibited, must convict of madness and folly 
the favourite pursuits of mankind. The virtues 
usually practiced in society, and the models of 
excellence most admired there, are so remote from 
that holiness which is enjoined in the New Testa- 
ment, that it is impossible for a taste wdiich is 
formed on the one to perceive the charms of the 
other. The happiness which it proposes in an 
union with God, and a participation of the image 
of Christ, is so far from being congenial to the in- 
clinations of worldly men, that it can scarcely be 
mentioned without exciting their ridicule and 
scorn. General speculations on the Deity have 
much to amuse the mind, and to gratify that appe- 
tite for the wonderful, whicli thouglitfid and spe- 
culative men arc delighted to indulge. Religion 
viewed in this liglit appears more in the form of 
an exercise to the understanding, tlinn a law to 
the heart, Here the soul expatiates at large, with- 



I 



LECTURE I. 45 

out feeling itself controlled or alarmed. But when 
evangelical truths are presented, they bring God 
so near, if we may he allowed the expression, and 
speak with so commanding a voice to the con- 
science, that they leave no alternative, but that of 
submissive acquiescence or proud revolt."* 

Hence the question as to the truth of Christianity 
is peculiar. You can investigate the truth of a 
narrative in common history, or of a phenomenon 
in physical science, or of a principle of political 
economy, with the coolness of a mere intellectual 
exercise. One sets out in such pursuits with no 
feelings already enlisted. Had this been the case, 
with regard to the divine origin of Christianity, 
" a tenth part of the testimony which has actually 
been given, would have been enough to satisfy us ; 
the testimony, both in weight and quantity, would 
have been looked upon as quite unexampled in the 
wliole compass of ancient literature."! But here 
the question is one of feeling, as well as evidence ; 
enlisting the heart, as well as the head. Powerful 
dispositions crowd around the investigation. Hence 
one is in danger, unless his natural inclinations be 
subdued, of looking at the argument through a 
medium which, while it diminishes the importance 
of the evidence, will magnify the objections. This 
explains sufficiently how it has happened that 
there have been men of learning and talents and 
much practical wisdom, in many departments, who 
have become and continued unbelievers. Their 
* Robert Hall, i Chalmers. 



46 LECTURE I: 

dispositions were stronger than tlieir talents, and 
moulded the latter to their own service, instead of 
yielding to their guidance. The examination was 
conducted rather by the test of inclination, than of 
evidence. Now it is no part of the profession of 
Christianity to furnish eyes to those who will not 
see. Evidence that will force its way irresistibly 
through prejudice and unwillingness, compelling 
submission, she does not promise. Enough to sa- 
tisfy, abundantly, every candid, serious, diligent, 
humble inquirer, she does profess to give. If she 
ever exhibit more, it is beyond her stipulation, and 
more than any have reason to demand. 

The pride of human reason is often deeply offended 
at the claims of Christianity. The gospel demands 
to be received as a revelation of truth, communicated 
by authority, so that a wise man shall have no room 
to ascribe his knowledge of God and of His will, to 
his own powers of discovery ; but has to sit, just 
where the ignorant and lowly must sit, at the feet 
of Jesus. This pleases not the speculative and 
ambitious turn of the human intellect. Men like 
to find out truth by reasonings of tlieir own, in- 
stead of the authoritative declarations of another, 
even though that other be infallible wisdom. 
They love to theorize and conjecture, and try the 
ingenuity of their own faculties, so as to praise 
themselves for whatever is ascertained. Hence, in 
matters of science, there was a long and liard 
struggle before they could be brought down from 
the proud flights of s])cculation, and consent to the 



LECTURE I. 47 

self-denial of the inductive method, submitting to 
be instructed only by the revelations of experi- 
ment, and in the unpretending school of fact. To 
adopt the same method in matters of religious in- 
vestigation, many are not yet willing. To give up 
all speculation — -philosophy^ " falsely so called"^ 
and consent to receive^ instead of being ambitious 
to discover^ religious truth ; to receive it at a source 
where the humblest and the loftiest mind must 
drink together, out of the same cup ; to receive it 
on the simple testimony of a well attested revela- 
tion, which lies as open to the peasant as the phi- 
losopher : this the wise men of the world are slow 
of heart to consent to. Their pride of reason is 
offended. Did an account come to them from the 
other continent of certain novel and interesting 
phenomena recently observed in the heavens ; they 
would see at once how unphilosophical it would 
be to commence theorizing upon the question of 
their truth, and then reject them because incon- 
sistent with certain previous speculations of their 
own. They would institute but the one inquiry : Is 
there reason to depend upon the accuracy of the 
observations, and the honesty of the reports of 
those from whom these statements proceed ? Satis- 
fied on this head, they would at once receive the 
phenomena, and every truth resulting therefrom, 
on the great principle of modern science, that what- 
ever is thus collected hy induction inust he received^ 
noticithstanding any conjectural hypothesis to the 
contrary, until contradicted or limited by other phe~ 



48 LECTURE I. 

nomena equally authenticated. Now we only ask 
them, not to disown the philosophy of Newton in 
examining the evidence of the religion of Christ ; 
to try the celestial wonders, the " mkaniquc 
celeste" as given by Christ and his apostles, not 
by theory or speculation, but precisely as they 
would try any other, in the open field of fact and 
induction. We do not ask them to believe, unless 
upon the credit of facts. But we do ask that what- 
ever is thus proved, they will receive, notwith- 
standing any conjectural hypothesis to the con- 
trary. The whole argument for Christianity, so 
far from being in any degree theoretical or specu- 
lative, is eminently one of experimental evidence 
and inductive simplicity. We take the position 
that our Lord Jesus ChrivSt professed to make a re- 
velation from God. It is conceded that if he at- 
tested his communications by miracles, he scaled 
that profession as true. We say he did thus attest 
them. But miracles are facts — phenomena — to be 
proved by the testimony of eyewitnesses, like any 
phenomena in physics. To such testimony we ap- 
peal. We ask the unbeliever to refute it; and if 
he cannot, to receive the revelation, and bow to 
its declarations as the attested w^ord of God. But 
here, unfortunately, we set the rule of sound phi- 
losophy against the dispositions of an unhumbled 
heart. The latter has the victory, often ; and the 
wise man goes to Avork to oppose our facts, with 
Ids theories ; our testimony, with his sjiccuhitions, 
till he Hatters himsell", because he has covered uj) 



LECTURE I. 49 

his eyes in his own mazes, that he has refuted the 
evidences of Christianity. Hence, therefore, ano- 
ther cause that learned men are not all believers 
in Christianity, They are not all humble enough, 
in a question with which heart and life are so much 
connected, to abide by the results to which the 
principles of philosophical investigation would na- 
turally lead them. But hence, also, a most im- 
portant reason that whoever of you may have 
doubts as to the gospel of Christ, should, in the 
pursuit on which we have entered, be cautious, 
candid, ready to learn, and determined to embrace 
the truth wherever it should be found. 

One consideration more. It is true of Chris- 
tianity, as of many other excellent subjects, that 
objections are more easily invented than ansioered. 
Objections in such matters are usually light affairs, 
floating on the surface of men's thoughts. An- 
swers, to be solid, must be heavier and lie deeper, 
requiring, like the pearl, both labour and skill to 
bring them up and fashion them for use. But 
Christianity is peculiarly exposed to objections ; 
from the simple fact that as it meets every body 
and compels every body to say yea or nay to its 
requirements, every body must needs have some- 
thing to say, however unreasonable, in its favour 
or against it. Few indeed would venture to give 
an opinion, without some study, on a question in 
science or polite literature ; but the most ignorant 
and unthinking will undertake an opinion upon the 
merits of the gospel, and raise an objection in a 
7 



50 LECTURE I. 

breath which would require much patience and 
some learning to refute. Hundreds hear the objec- 
tion ; thousands relish, retain, and are poisoned by 
it ; while, perhaps, not one of them has the disposi- 
tion to hear, or patience enough to understand, the 
reply. Evil hearts can do what only good and 
well instructed minds can undo. " Pertness and 
ignorance may ask a question, in three lines, which 
it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to 
answer. When this is done, the same question 
will be triumphantly asked again the next year, as 
if nothing had ever been written on the subject. 
And as people, in general, for one reason or ano- 
ther, like short objections better than long answers; 
in this mode of disputation (if it can be styled 
such) the odds must ever be against us ; and we 
must be content with those for our friends who 
have honesty and erudition, candour and patience, 
to study both sides of the question."* 

These observations explain the lamentable fact, 
that, in a large portion of society, there is so much 
more acquaintance with the cant and slang of infi- 
delity, than with the reasonings in support of Chris- 
tianity ; that our young men are often so familiar 
with the boasting and floating calumnies which the 
troubled sea of infidelity is ever casting up, with 
its mire and dirt, in the face of the goj^pel ; while, 
with the innumerable efforts by which christian 
science has scattered all such poisonous cxhala- 

* llonic'ri Lctlcis on Infidelity. 



LECTURE I. 51 

tions to the winds, many have not the most trifling 
acquaintance. 

All these considerations are at least sufficient to 
impress us with the eminent importance of the 
most serious attention to the spirit and manner in 
which one proceeds in the study of the evidences 
of Christianity. 

Let me urgently recommend docility^ in this pur- 
suit. By this, I mean nothing resembling credulity] 
but an open-hearted and humble-minded readiness 
to weigh evidence with simplicity of purpose in 
the most even scales of truth ; and then to submit 
to, and follow the truth, wherever it may lead, with 
singleness of heart, in the fear of God. 

Let me also recommend a deep seriousness of 
'purpose^ in this pursuit. I mean that calm ,but set- 
tled earnestness of mind, which a just sense of the 
unspeakable importance of the subject, and of the 
responsibility under which all, even the most in- 
different, must treat it, will necessarily inspire. 

Lastly, prayer is by all means to be employed in 
this pursuit. It is written most wisely : " If any 
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God." But do I 
forget that I am speaking from the chair of a lec- 
ture room, instead of the pulpit of a church? 
Prayer ! How do I know but that I am addressing 
many who are already on the side of infidelity ? 
Would I say to them, study the evidences of Chris- 
tianity with prayer 7 Is it not equivalent to beg- 
ging the question 7 Is it not asking them to do 
what, as professors of infidelity, they object to 7 



52 LECTURE I. 

In one sense, I verily believe it is begging the ques- 
tion. A spirit of serious, earnest prayer, for the 
knowledge of truth, is utterly inconsistent with the 
spirit of infidelity. Who does not feel the singu- 
larity involved in the idea of seeing a thorough 
infidel engaged in secret, earnest prayer, to be pre- 
served from all bias in search of truth, and to be 
led in the way in which God would have him to 
go ? And yet, if he be not an Atheist, he can have 
nothing to say against the propriety of such a step. 
But is it true that infidelity and the spirit of prayer 
are practically so inconsistent 1 Is it true that we 
have already accomplished at least half our work 
of conviction, when we have persuaded an unbe- 
liever to make religious truth a subject of serious 
supplication at the throne of grace ? What does 
this say for the gospel ? 

Any, who are very anxious to continue in unbe- 
lief, had better not pray. They might find out 
more than would be convenient, by such an effort. 
Infidelity cannot tolerate so much seriousness. But 
if any feel that they lack wisdom, in this great con- 
cern of eternity, and desire to know the way of 
light and life : " let them ask of God, loho giveth to 
all men liberally and uphraidcth not ; and it shall 
he given them." 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE II. 



AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Our last lecture was only introductory to the 
important subject to which I have undertaken to 
lead your attention. In the present we enter di- 
rectly upon one of its principal branches. 

The study of the evidences of Christianity may 
be either brief or extended, according to the object 
with which it is pursued. If it be merely the pos- 
session of some one distinct and conclusive train of 
reasoning, perfect in itself, the investigation may 
soon be ended. The student may take any single 
miracle or fulfilled prophecy ; he may choose his 
premises from the narrative of the resurrection of 
Christ, or the conversion of St. Paul, or the propa- 
gation of Christianity, and, confining his argument 
to the point selected, may deduce a finished proof 
of the divine authority of the gospel. But if he 
desire not only rational satisfaction for his own 
mind, but a full view of all those great highways 
of evidence which, from every quarter, concentrate 



54 LECTURE U. 

upon Christianity; if he would behold, not only 
that it is capable of conclusive proof, but how 
variously and wonderfully its Divine Author has 
encompassed it with proofs of every kind, drawn 
from innumerable sources, and prepared, at all 
points, for every objection, he may lay himself out 
for a work of extensive research, as well as rich 
gratification and improvement. 

The evidences of Christianity are classed under 
two general denominations : external or historical^ 
and internal evidence. Under the latter, are in- 
cluded whatever proof of divine original may be 
drawn from the doctrines of the gospel ; its incom- 
parable system of morality ; the adaptation of the 
religion of Christ to the condition and wants of 
mankind ; the holy and elevated character of its 
Founder ; together with all those incidental, but 
striking and various, marks of uprightness, accu- 
racy, and benevolence, which appear in the spirit 
and manner of the New Testament writers, or 
from a comparison of their several books one with 
another. Such are the principal heads of internal 
evidence. Under the name of external or historical 
evidence^ we find whatever exhibits the need of a 
revelation, as apparent in the state of human opi- 
nion and practice among the most enlightened 
nations at the commencement of the gospel ; the 
argument establishing the authenticity of the scrip- 
tures, and the credibility of the history contained 
therein ; the proofs arising from miracles ; from fid- 
filled prophecy ; from the propagation of clu'istian- 



LECTURE II. 55 

ity, and from the social and personal benefits which 
have always accompanied its promotion, according 
to the degree in which its native character and 
inlluence have had room to appear. Such are the 
principal heads of external evidence. 

The present coarse of lectures, for want of time 
to carry it further, will be confined to the depart- 
ment last described, which is chosen in preference 
to the other, not because it is more important or 
conclusive, but as more capable of having justice 
done it, in a series of discussions such as that to 
which the circumstances of these lectures restrict 
us. 

Should we embrace in our view of this grand 
division of evidence whatever belongs to it, your 
attention would first be called to the indispensable 
necessity of a divine revelation^ as the history of the 
ancient world displays it, and as it is still exhibited 
in the dark places of the earth. This, however, 
we have not room to include in our course. 
Though extremely impressive, and worthy of in- 
vestigation, it is not an essential argument. The 
straight forward method of philosophical inquiry 
directs its attention to the testimony simply that 
an event did occur, and will not suspend assent till 
the need of such an event shall have been fully 
explained. If convincing evidence be adduced to 
the matter of fact that a revelation has been given ; 
we may be reasonably content, while our limits 
forbid the proof that it ivas needed. Whoever should 
desire to read on this head will find it well dis- 



56 LECTURE II. 

cussed in the first volume of Wilsoii's Lectures on 
the Evidences, &c., or in the admiralDle letters on 
the same subject, by Olinthus Gregory^ L. L. />., 
Professor of Mathematics m the Royal 3Iilitary 
Academy at Woolwich^ one of the most scientific 
and pious laymen of the age ; or, more at large, in 
the learned volume of Leland, on the Advantages 
and Necessity of a Divine Revelation. 

Let us begin with the authenticity of the New 
Testament. We possess a venerable volume, under 
this title, consisting of twenty-seven independent 
books or writings, reputed to have been composed 
by eight different authors. It professes to contain, 
and is continually appealed to as containing, not 
only an accurate account of the history and doc- 
trine of Jesus Christ, but an account written in the 
first age of Christianity, by its earliest disciples and 
advocates, who were contemporaneous with its 
author, and were, most of them, eyewitnesses of 
the events related. Now, before we can be rea- 
sonably warranted in placing implicit reliance in 
the New Testament, as the hook of the facts and 
doctrines of the gospel, two important questions 
must be determined. First: is there satisfactory 
evidence that the several ivritings, of whiclu it is com- 
jiosed, were written by the men to lohom they are 
ascribed 7 This involves the authenticity of the 
New Testament. Secondly: is the New Testa- 
ment deserving of im2)licit reliance as to matters of 
historical detail^ so tliat xoc may receive any narra- 
tive^ us unquestionably true, becuuse contained titer cin 7 



LECTURE II. 57 

Tills refers to the credibility of the New Testa- 
ment. Thus you perceive, that whether a volume 
be authentic, and whether credible, are two widely 
separate questions, neither, necessarily implying the 
other, however the evidence of one may bear upon 
the proof of the other. Writings may be authentic^ 
composed by the men whose names they bear, and 
yet not credible. They may be credible, because 
correct in their statements, and yet not authentic. 
The question of authenticity refers to the author ; 
that of credibility to the narrative. " The Pil- 
grim's Progress" is authentic, because it was ac- 
tually composed by John Bunyan, to whom it is 
ascribed ; but as a narrative, it is not credible, being 
an allegory throughout. The book entitled " Tra- 
vels of Anacharsis the Younger," is credible, so 
far as it professes to exhibit a view of the antiqui- 
ties, manners, customs, religious ceremonies, &c., 
of ancient Greece ; but it is not authentic, having 
been written in the eighteenth century by Barthe- 
lemy, and fictitiously ascribed to the Scythian phi- 
losopher. " Marshall's Life of Washington" is both 
authentic and credible, being a true history, and 
worthily honoured with the name of that eminent 
and excellent man, from whose pen it professes to 
have come. That the New Testament is also au- 
thentic and credible, we undertake to show. We 
exclude the more ancient portion of the sacred 
volume, not because of any deficiency in its evi- 
dence, but for the sake of unity and clearness in 
our inquiries ; and because, when the argument for 



58 



LECTURE II. 



the New Testament is set forth in a conclusive 
form, the authenticity and credibility of the other 
is rendered, as will hereafter appear, a necessary 
inference. The two questions will be the subjects 
of different lectures. To that of authenticity our 
attention will, this evening, be confined. Let us 
begin with the following : 

Hoin does it aj^pear that the several writings com- 
posing the volume of the New Testament were writ- 
ten by the men to whoin they are ascribed — the ori- 
ginal disciples of Christ — and are consequently au- 
thentic ? 

We pursue precisely the same method in deter- 
mining the authorship of the New Testament, as 
in ascertaining that of any other book of a passed 
age. For example ; we possess a celebrated poem 
entitled Paradise Lost. It bears the name of Mil- 
ton. How do we know that Milton composed it 7 
The answer is easy. Our fathers received it, as his 
production, from their fathers ; and they, from theirs. 
By such steps, we ascend to the very year in which 
the book was first published, and find it invariably 
ascribed to Milton. Moreover, the history of the 
\ age in which he lived, speaks of it as unquestion- 
ably and notoriously his work. Writers of every 
succeeding age refer to and quote it as well known 
to be his. The language of the poem bears the 
characteristic marks of Milton's times. Its spirit, 
genius, and style, display the distinctive features of 
Milton's mind and character. And, finally, though 
Miltuu had many enemies, and lived in a time of 



LECTURE II. 59 

great divisions, and this poem redounded greatly to 
his praise, and many must have been disposed, had 
they been able, to discover some false pretensions 
in his claim to its authorship ; no other person 
in that age was ever mentioned as disputing his 
title, but all united in acknowledging him as the 
writer of Paradise Lost. On this evidence, al- 
though the poem professes to have been written as 
far back as the year 1674, we are so perfectly cer- 
tain of its authenticity, that the man who should 
dispute it would be justly suspected of idiocy or 
derangement. And had Milton lived in the 7th, in- 
stead of the 17th century, a similar body of evi- 
dence would have been equally satisfactory. If, 
instead of the 7th century, he had lived in the first 
of the Christian era, similar evidence, reaching up 
to his time, would still prove, beyond a question, 
that he wrote Paradise Lost. Thus it is evident 
that time has no effect to impair the force of such 
proof. Whether a book be ascribed to the chris- 
tian era or to five centuries before or after, the evi- 
dence, being the same, is equally satisfactory. It 
as well convinces us that the history ascribed to 
Herodotus, in the 5th century, before Christ, was 
written by that historian, as that the jEneid was 
written by Virgil, a little before the birth of Christ ; 
or the " Faerie Queene^' by Spenser, in the 1590th 
year after that event. We are no less satisfied of 
the authenticity of the orations of Demosthenes, 
than of Newton's Principia, though between the 
dates of their publication, there is an interval of 



60 LECTURE II. 

more than two thousand years. So little does the 
age of a book alTect the evidence required to es- 
tablish its authenticity. 

Now in ascertaining the authorship of the New 
Testament, we are furnished with evidence pre- 
cisely similar to that which settles the question so 
conclusively as to either of the works above men- 
tioned.* An unbroken chain of testimony ascends 
from the present generation to the preceding, and 
thence to the next beyond, and thence onward 
again, till it reaches the very age of the apostles, 
exhibiting an uninterrupted series of acknowledg- 
ments of the New Testament, as having been writ- 
ten indeed by those primitive disciples to whom its 
several parts are ascribed. Besides this, historians 
and other writers of the age ascribed to this volume, 
as well Heathen and Jewish, as Christian, not only 
recognize its existence in their day, but speak of it 
as notoriously the production of its reputed authors. 
And again, although the New Testament at the 
time of its first appearance, cither in parts or col- 
lectively, was surrounded with numerous, learned, 
and ingenious, as well as most bitter enemies, both 
among Heathens and Jews; and although there 
arose at an early period, many animated contro- 
versies bet\veen the real believers in gospel truth, 

* " We know," says St. Augustine, " the writings of the Apos- 
tles, as wc know the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Varro, and 
others ; and as we know the writings of divers ccclc?iastical au- 
thors ; for as much as they have the testimony of contemporaries, 
and of those who have lived in succeeding ages." 



LECTURE II. 61 

Oil one side, and sundry heretical pretenders to the 
christian faith, whose cause would often have been 
materially served by a well sustained denial of the 
authenticity of certain of the books of the New 
Testament ; none in the primitive ages, whe- 
ther heretics or open enemies, ever denied that this 
volume contained the genuine writings of the ori- 
ginal apostles and disciples of Christ, On the con- 
trary, all received, argued, and acted upon it as 
unquestiona,bly authentic. Thus we have the same 
evidence that the books of the New Testament 
were written by those whose names they bear, as 
that Paradise Lost was written by the man whose 
name it bears. The force of this evidence is in 
no wise diminished by the consideration that the 
apostles lived in the first, and Milton in the seven- 
teenth century. 

Thus have you received a general outline of the 
argument. We proceed to a more particular 
view. 

I. The hooks of the New Testament are quoted or 
alluded to by a series of luriters who 'may be followed 
uj) in imbroken succession from the present age to 
that of the apostles. In proof of this, it is unne- 
cessary for the satisfaction of any person of ordi- 
nary information to trace the line of testimony from 
the present time, or from any point of departure 
lower down than the fourth century. Whoever 
has the least acquaintance with the history of the 
civilized world, as far upward as the fourth cen- 
tnry, must know that the acknowledgment of the 



62 LECTURE II. 

New Testament, as composed of authentic writings, 
is interwoven with all the literature, science, and 
political, as well as religious institutions, of every 
subsequent age. We begin, therefore, the chain of 
testimony at the fourth century. 

It is a very impressive evidence of the high esti- 
mate m which the New Testament was universally 
held at this period, that beside innumerable quota- 
tions in various writings, no less than ten distinct 
and formal catalogues of its several books, were 
composed at various times, during the fourth cen- 
tury, by different hands ; and two of them by large 
and solemn councils of the heads of the christian 
church. All of these are still extant ; and all agree, 
in every particular, important to the present argu- 
ment, with the list of the New Testament writings 
as at present received. In the year 397, a national 
or provincial council assembled at Carthage, con- 
sisting 'of forty-four bishops — Augustine, bishop of 
Hippo, was a member. The 47th canon of that 
council is thus written : ^' It is ordained that nothing 
beside the canonical scriptures be read in the church 
under the name of divine scriptures ; and the ca- 
nonical scriptures are these," &c. In the enume- 
ration, we find precisely our New Testament books, 
and no more.* 

About the same time, Augustine wrote a book 
entitled " Of the Christian Doctrine^^^ in which is 
furnished a catalogue of what he considered the 

* Laiilnor's Credibility of the Cio^p. Hist. xi. 574. 



LECTURE II. 63 

authentic writiugs of the evangelists and apostles, 
agreeing entirely with ours. " In these books (saitli 
he) they ivho fear God, seek his loillJ''* 

A short time before this, Rufinus, a presbyter of 
Aquileia, published an " Exjolication of the Apos- 
tles' Creedj^ in which he includes a catalogue of 
the scriptures. It commences thus : " It will not 
be improper to enumerate here, the books of the 
New and Old Testament, which we find, by the 
monuments of the fathers, to have been delivered 
to the churches, as inspired by the Holy Spirit." 
This list differs in nothing from ours.t 

Jerome, a contemporaneous writer, universally 
allowed to have been the most learned of the Latin 
fathers, in a letter concerning the study of the 
scriptures, enumerates the books of the New Tes- 
tament in precise correspondence with our volume. 
With regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews, he 
states that by some it was not considered as the 
work of Paul; though it is evident, from other 
places of his writings, that he was satisfied of its 
authenticity, and numbered it among the canonical 
scriptures.^ 

In the year 380, wrote Philastrius, bishop of Bres- 
cia. In a book " Co7icerni7ig Heresies" he gives 
a catalogue agreeing entirely with ours, except 
that it omits the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the 
Book of Revelation. But it does not follow that 

* Lardner, xi. 578. j lb. xi. 673. J lb. xi. 648. 



64 LECTURE II. 

these were not considered canonical. The object 
of his catalogue is to enumerate the books appointed 
to be read in the churches. The Epistle to the 
Hebrews, he says, was read in the churches " some- 
times." " Some pretend (he writes) that additions 
have been made to it by some heterodox persons, 
and that for that reason it ought not to be read in 
the churches, though it is read by some." Philas- 
trius himself received it, and frequently quoted it 
as the work of St. Paul, and reckoned it a heresy 
to reject it. He received also the book of Revela- 
tion, mentioning its rejection by some among the 
heresies of the age. " There are some (he writes) 
who dare to say that the Revelation is not a wtI- 
ting of John the apostle and evangelist."* 

About the year 370, flourished Gregory Nazian- 
zen, bishop of Constantinople, who in a work" On 
the True arid Genuine Scriptures" enumerates all the 
present books of the New Testament, except that 
of Revelation. This however he has quoted in his 
other works.t 

At the same time, wrote Epiphanius, bishop of 
Constantia, in Cyprus ; " a man of five languages." 
He wrote against heresies, and gave a list of the 
New Testament books which agrees exactly with 



ours. 



4- 



About the year ooO, another catalogue was pub- 
lished by the Council of Laodicea, differing in 

^* LHrdnur, xi. 5-2. j- lb. -170, 71. ;{; lb. 41G. 



LECTURE II. 65 

nothing from ours but in the omission of Revela- 
tion. The decrees of this council were, in a short 
time, received into the canons of the universal 
cliurch ; so that as early as about the middle of the 
4th century, we find a universal agreement, in all 
parts of the world in which Christianity existed, as 
to the constituent parts of the New Testament, 
with the single exception of the book of Revela- 
tion. That this was also generally received, and 
why any doubted its authenticity, will appear in 
our subsequent progress.* 

Athanasius and Cyril, the latter bishop of Jerusa- 
lem, a little earlier in the century, have furnished 
catalogues — that of the former agreeing entirely 
with ours — that of the latter in every thing but the 
omission of the Revelation of St. John. 

The last catalogue to be mentioned in the 4th 
century, is that of Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea, who 
flourished about the year 315. "A man (says Je- 
rome) most studious in the divine scriptures, and 
very diligent in making a large collection of eccle- 
siastical writers." In his Ecclesiastical History, 
he mentions, as belonging to the canon of scrip- 
ture, all our present books. While he speaks of 
the Epistle of James, the second of Peter, the third 
of John, and the book of Revelation, as questioned 
by some, he states that they were generally re- 

* Lardner, ii. 414. Alexander on the Canon, p. 150. 
9 



66 LECTURE II. 

ceived, and declares his own conviction that they 
ought not to be doubted.* 

The above testimonies, though capable of great 
multiplication, are amply sufficient to exhibit the 
universal confidence of Christians', of the fourth cen- 
tury, in the authenticity of the New Testament. 
Let us proceed to the tkird. In this, among other 
important names, we find that of the celebrated 
Origen, who flourished about the year 230, having 
been born A. D. 184. Jerome speaks of him, as 
the greatest doctor of the churches, since the apos- 
tles — that he had the scriptures by heart, and la- 
boured day and night in studying and explaining 
them.t Great numbers of all descriptions of men 
attended his lectures. Heathen philosophers dedi- 
cated their writings to him, and submitted them to 
his revisal. He wrote a three-fold exposition of 
the books of scripture, on which he bestowed all 
his learning. He lived within a hundred years of 
the death of St. John, and was therefore so near 
the time of the publication of the books of the 
New Testament, that he could hardly avoid ob- 
taining the most accurate knowledge of their origin 
and authors. His enumeration of these waitings 
contains no other books than those of our sacred 
volume, and includes all that we receive, except 
the Epistles of James and Jude, which could not 
have been omitted by design, as in other places he 



* Lurdner, ii. 368, &c. f lb. i. 627. 



LECTURE II. 6? 

expressly acknowledges them as part of the sacred 
canon. 

Beside Origen, we have in the third century, 
Victorinus, a bishop in Germany ; Cyprian, bishop 
of Carthage ; Gregory, of Neo-Caesarea, and Dioiiy- 
sius, of Alexandria, in whose writings are found 
most copious quotations from almost every book of 
the New Testament. 

We proceed to the second century. Here we 
meet with Tertullian, a native of Carthage, born 
about the year 150, within fifty years of the last 
of the apostles, and renowned in his day as a 
learned, vigorous, and voluminous writer in de- 
fence of Christianity. His works abound in quo- 
tations of the most direct kind, and with long ex- 
tracts from all the books of the New Testament, 
except four of the minor Epistles, which, as he no 
where professes to give a formal catalogue, he may 
easily be supposed to have passed unquoted, with- 
out entertaining any opinion unfavourable to their 
authenticity. Tertullian's quotations occupy nearly 
thirty folio pages. " There are more and larger 
quotations of the small volume of the New Testa- 
ment in this one christian author^ than of all the 
works of Cicero— in the writers of all characters 
for several ages"* 

The same is true with regard to IrensBus and 
Clement, of Alexandria, both writers of the second 

* Lardner, i. 435. 



68 LECTURE II. 

century. In what spirit these early Christians 
regarded the authority of the New Testament 
books, may be judged from the manner of their 
quotations. Irenseus writes : " As tJte blessed Paul 
says, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, v. 30 : ' For 
we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his 
bones.' " And so Clement, " The blessed Paid, in 
the fii-st Epistle to the Corinthians : ' Brethren, be 
not children in understanding,' " &c. 

It deserves to be specially noted that, in this 
early age, the book of Revelation is expressly 
ascribed to St. John. The testimony of Irenseus 
to this effect is so full and strong, that it may justly 
be considered as putting its authenticity entirely 
beyond reasonable dispute.* 

There is abundant evidence that, in the second 
century, the books of the New Testament were 
open to all, and well known in the world. In 
Tertullian's Apology, addressed to the Roman 
presidents, he challenges an inspection of the scrip- 
tures. " Look into the words of God, our scrip- 
tures, which we ourselves do not conceal, and 
many accidents bring into the way of those who 
are not of our religion." In this appeal, he calls 
the attention of the heathen rulers to the Epistles 
and Gospels, as constituting, " the words of God, 
our scriptures."! 

There is good reason to believe that, in the time of 
TertuUian, the very autographs, or original letters of 

* Lardner, i. 372. t Liuxlncr, i. 434. 



LECTURE II. 69 

the apostles, werein the possession of those churches 
to which they had been specially directed. " If 
(says this ancient writer) you be willing to exer- 
cise your curiosity profitably in the business of 
your salvation, visit the apostolical churches, in 
which the very chairs of the apostles still preside ; 
in which their mry authentic letters are recited, 
sounding forth the voice, and representing the 
countenance, of each one of them. Is Achaia near 
you 7 You have Corinth. If you are not far from 
Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have Thessa- 
lonica," &c.* If Tertullian did not mean that the 
original manuscripts, but only authentic copies of 
the Epistles to the Corinthians, Philippians, «&c., 
were to be seen by application to those churches, 
why send inquirers thither 7 Could an authentic 
copy of the Epistle to the Philippians be seen no- 
where but at Philippi; or of that to the Corinthians, 
nowhere but at Corinth 7t 

The quotations from the New Testament, in the 
writings of the second century, are so numerous 
that were the sacred volume lost, a large part of 
it might be collected from them alone. Passing 
by the testimonies of Melito, bishop of Sardis, who 
VN^rote a commentary on the book of Revelation, 
and of Hegesippus, converted from Judaism, and of 
Tatian, who composed a harmony of the gospels, all 
born about the time of the death of St. John, we come 
to Justin Martyr, born about ten years prior to that 

* Lardner, i. 424. j Alexander on the Canon, p. 143. 



70 LECTURE II. 

event. Before his conversion from heathenism, he 
studied philosophy in the schools of the Stoics, Pe- 
ripatetics, Pythagoreans, and Platonics. After 
becoming a Christian, he occupied a high stand in 
learned writing and holy living. His remaining 
works contain numerous quotations from, as well 
as allusions to, the four Gospels, which he uniformly 
represents^ as containing " the genuine and authen- 
tic accounts of Jesus Christ and of his doctrine." 
The same is true in relation to the Acts of the 
Apostles, and the greater part of the Epistles. The 
book of Revelation is expressly said by Justin to 
have been written by " John, one of the apostles 
of Christ." Having lived before the death of that 
apostle, he had the best opportunity of knowing. 

We finish the second century with Papias, bishop 
of Hierapolis in Asia, whom Irena^us speaks of as 
a hearer of John, and a disciple of Polycarp, a 
pupil of John the apostle.* How he obtained his 
information, will appear from the only fragment of 
his writings remaining. It is found in Eusebius. 
" If at any time, I met with one who had conversed 
with the elders, I inquired after the sayings of the 
elders (presbyters) : what Andrew or what Peter 
said; or what Philip, Thomas, or James, had said; 
what John or Matthew, or what any other of the 
disciples of the Lord, were wont to say."t Thus 
we have a witness who lived near enough to the 
beginning, to inquire of those who had conversed 

* Lardncr, i. 33C. j lb., i. 337. 



LECTURE II. 71 

with the apostles, if not to listen to St. John him- 
self. Too little remains of his writings to furnisli 
many testimonies, especially as he had it not in 
view to confirm the authenticity of any part of 
scripture ; but still he gives a very valuable testi- 
mony to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and tlie 
first Epistles of Peter and John. He alludes to the 
Acts and the book of Revelation. 

Thus we have ascended to the apostolic age. 
But we may reach still higher. We have in our 
possession the well authenticated writings of five 
individuals and fathers in the primitive church, 
who, because they were contemporary with the 
apostles, are called apostolical fathers. Three of 
them, Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas, are men- 
tioned by name in the New Testament;* the 
fourth, Polycarp, was an immediate disciple of St. 
John ; the fifth, Ignatius, enjoyed the privilege of 
frequent intercourse with the apostles. There is 
scarcely a book of the New Testament, which one 
or another of these writers has not either quoted 
or alluded to. Though what is extant of their 
works is very little, it contains more than two 
hundred and twenty quotations, or allusions to the 
writings of our sacred volume, in which they are 
uniformly treated with the reverence belonging to 
inspired books, calling them " the Sacred Scrip- 
tures ;^^ ^^the Oracles of the Lord.^^ Their testi- 



* Acts xiii. 2, 3 ; 46, 47. 1 Cor. ix. 4—7. Phil. iv. 3. 
xvi. 14. 



72 LECTURE II. 

mony is not universal, inasmuch as it is incidental. 
They had no design of enumerating for posterity, 
or their contemporaries, the books of scripture. 
There was no controversy on that subject in their 
age. It would have seemed a needless waste of 
words, had they attempted to decide a question 
which no one asked. It is very natural, therefore, 
considering the brevity of their remaining works, 
and the incidental character of their quotations, 
that some of the shorter writings of the New Tes- 
tament should not be alluded to ; while the fact 
that, by one or another, almost every book is 
quoted or alluded to, and that the whole number 
of quotations or allusions is upwards of two hun- 
dred and twenty, accompanied with every mark 
of reverence and submission, is a most impressive 
proof that the authenticity and inspired authority 
of the New Testament books were then notorious 
and unquestioned among Christians. 

Thus we have ascended the line of testimony 
into the presence of the apostles. Our evidence 
has been collected from only a few out of the many 
witnesses that might have been cited. It has been 
derived from writers of different times, and of 
countries widely separated — from philosphers, rhe- 
toricians, and divines, all men of acuteness and 
learning in their days, all concurring in their tes- 
timony tliat the books of the New Testament^ere 
equally known in distant regions, and received as 
authentic by men and churches that had no inter- 
course with one another. The argument is now, 



LECTURE II. 73 

therefore, reduced to this. The apostles and dis- 
ciples of Christ are known to have left some wri- 
tings. That those writings have been lost, none 
can give a reason for believing. It is not pre- 
tended that any other volume than that of the New 
Testament contains them. The books contained 
in this volume, were considered to be the writings 
of the apostles, by the whole christian church, as 
far back as those who were their contemporaries 
and companions, being continually quoted and 
alluded to as such. It was impossible that such 
witnesses should be deceived. Contemporaries 
and companions must have known whether they 
quoted the genuine works of the apostles, or only 
forgeries pretending to their names. Our evidence, 
therefore, is complete. What I have presented, 
exceeds, above measure, the evidence for the 
authenticity of any other ancient book. Should the 
fiftieth part of it be demanded for any Roman or 
Grecian production, its character must be con- 
demned as unworthy of confidence. 

Before relinquishing this department of evidence, 
there are certain very important particulars which, 
though embraced in what has been already ad- 
vanced, require a more special notice. 

1st. It is worthy of distinct remark, that when 
the books of the New Testament are quoted or 
alluded to by those whose testimony has been ad- 
duced, they are treated icith supreme regard, as 
possessing an authority belonging to no other books, 
and as conclusive in questions of religion. For ex- 
10 



74 LECTURE 11. 

ample, Ireneetis, born about A. D. 97, calls them 
^^ divine oracles;" ^^ scriptures of the Lord." He 
says that the Gospel was " committed to writing, 
by the will of God, that it might be, for time to 
come, the foundation and pillar of our faith."* 
" He fled to the Gospels, which he believed no less 
than if Christ had been speaking to him ; and to 
the writings of the apostles, whom he esteemed as 
the presbytery of the whole christian church." 
Origen, born about A. D. 184, says, " Christians 
believe Jesus to be the Son of God, in a sense not 
to be explained and made known to men, by any 
but by that scripture alone which is inspired, by the 
Holy Ghost; that is^ the evangelic and apostolic 
scripture, as also that of the law and the pro- 
phets. "t Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, born about 
the end of the second century, earnestly exhorts 
" all in general, but especially christian ministers, 
in all doubtful matters, to have recourse to the 
Gospels and the Epistles of the apostles, as to the 
fountain where may be found the true original 
doctrine of Christ." " The precepts of the Gospel 
(he says) are to be considered as the lessons of 
God to us ; as the foundations of our hope, and the 
supports of our faith. "J 

2d. The books of the Neio Testament xccrc united 
at a very early period, in a distinct volume. Not to 
mention, in evidence of this, that in all the earliest 
writers, the Gospels and Epistles are spoken of as 

* Laiducr, i. 372. t l^., i. 545. + lb., ii. 27, and 592, 3. 



LECTURE II, 75 

constituting a notorious collection of sacred au- 
thorities, divided into those two parts ; we have 
Tertullian, born only fifty years after the death of 
St. John, calling the collection of the Gospels the 
" evangelical instrument ;" the w^hole volume, the 
" New Testament ;" and the two parts, the " Gos- 
pels and apostlesP 

3d. TJie hooks of the JVeiv Testament were, at a 
very early period, publicly read and expounded in 
the congregations of Christians. Chrysostom, born 
about A. D. 347, testifies that " the Gospels, when 
written, were not hid in a corner, or buried in 
obscurity, but made known to all the world, before 
enemies as well as others, even as they are now." 
Irenseus, about two hundred years earlier, says 
that, in his time, '* all the scriptures, both prophe- 
cies and Gospels, are open and clear, and may he 
heard of all r* Still earlier, we find Justin Martyr 
giving the emperor an account of the christian 
worship, in which it is written : " The memoirs of 
the apostles or the writings of the prophets are 
read, according as the time allows ; and when the 
reader has ended, the president makes a discourse, 
exhorting to the imitation of so excellent things."! 
The custom, here mentioned, is evidently spoken 
of as notorious and universal. This was about the 
year 140. But a practice thus general and fami- 
liar could hardly have grown up in less than forty 
years before the writing of this last witness. Thus 

-- * Lardner, i. 372. j lb., i. 345. 



76 LECTURE II. 

we reach the life of St. John, and may, therefore, 
consider it as satisfactorily proved that, at a period 
as early as the last years of St. John, the scrip- 
tares of the New Testament were publicly read 
and expounded in the churches of Christians. 
Such is the natural inference, from many passages 
in the works of Augustine, of the fourth century. 
For example, " The canonical books of scripture 
being read every where, the miracles therein re- 
corded, are well known to all people." " The 
Epistles of Peter and Paul are daily recited to the 
people." And to what people ? And to how many 
people 7 Listen to the Psalm : " Their sound hath 
gone out into all the earthJ'' Again : '* The genuine- 
ness and integrity of the same scriptures may be 
relied on, which have been spread all over the 
world, and which from the time of their puhlication 
icere in the highest esteem^ and have been carefully 
kept in the churches.* 

4th. During the primitive ages of Christianity^ 
commentaries were written upon the books of the JVew 
Testament ; harmonies of them were formed^ copies 
diligently compared, and translations made into dif- 
ferent languages. In proof of these assertions, it 
is needless, after the citations already made, to call 
up testimony. It may be found abundantly in 
Paley's Evidences;! where it is well said, that 
" no greater proof can be given of the esteem in 
which these ancient books were holden by the 

* Lardner, ii. 593, 4. j P. i. c. ix. § vi. 



LECTURE II. 77 

ancient Christians, or of the sense then entertained 
of their value and importance, than the industry 
bestowed upon them. Moreover, it shows that they 
were then considered as ancient books. Men do 
not write comments upon publications of their own 
times ; therefore the testimonies cited under this 
head, afford an evidence which carries up the evan- 
gelic writings, much beyond the age of the testi- 
monies themselves, and to that of their reputed 
authors." There is but a single example of a 
christian writer during the three first centuries, 
composing comments upon any other books than 
those in the New Testament. Clement, of Alex- 
andria, is mentioned by Eusebius as having written 
short notes upon an apocryphal book, called the 
Revelation of Peter ; but that he did not consider 
it as having authority, may be inferred from the 
fact mentioned by Eusebius, that in his other 
works it was nowhere quoted."* 

5th. From the view we have taken of primitive 
testimony, it appears that the agreement of the an- 
cient church as to what were the authentic hooks of the 
New Testament, is complete. Of thirteen catalogues, 
the earliest of which was furnished by Origen, liv- 
ing within a hundred years of St. John; all of 
which were drawn up, either by solemn councils, or 
distinguished heads of the church residing in vari- 
ous and widely remote parts of the world ; of these 
thirteen, seven, including the earliest, agree exactly 

* Lardner, i. 410. 



78 



LECTURE II. 



with our New Testament list ; three others differ 
only in the omission of the book of Revelation, for 
which they had a special reason not implicating its 
authenticity; and in two of the remaining, the 
books omitted and spoken of as doubtful, in the 
estimation of some, were acknowledged and quoted 
as authentic by the framers of the catalogues. The 
fathers, in all their writings and of all ages and 
countries, appeal to the same scriptures as infalli- 
ble authority. The consent of the ancient church 
was therefore universal. So f-a^ as the argument 
for the divine revelation of the Gospel is connected 
with the authenticity of any of the books it was 
without exception. The books omitted in some wri- 
ters and catalogues, have no essential reference to 
the great question whether the Gospel of Christ is 
of divine revelation. 

6th. The agreement among the various sects of here- 
tics in the earliest centuries^ is as entire as that of the 
orthodox fathers. The authenticity of the books of 
the New Testament was acknowledged even by 
those to whose sectarian interest their authority 
was extremely detrimental. Instead of venturing to 
dispute their having been written by their reputed 
authors, they sought refuge in arbitrary interpreta- 
tions of such passages as opposed their favourite 
views. Some among the Gnostics, for example, 
unable to escape the apostolic character of the sa- 
cred books, maintained tlie necessity of giving an 
allegorical turn to their declarations. And when, 
in the course of time, heretics did undertake to 



LECTURE II, 79 

question the authenticity of some portions of the 
New Testament, their accusation was not based 
upon any historical or testimonial objections, but 
confined to some trifling and pretended internal 
causes of exception which only their own conve- 
nience could discover. Some of these later here- 
tics, being opposed to the doctrine of the influences 
of the Holy Spirit, denied the Gospel of St. John, 
because it contains the promise of that divine 
Teacher and Comforter. But with regard to those 
of an earlier date Irenseus of the second century, 
writes, " So great is the certainty in regard to our 
Gospels, that even the heretics themselves bear tes- 
timony in their favour; and all acknowledging 
them, each endeavours to establish from them his 
own opinions."* Origen, on account as well of his 
candour and acquaintance with the heresies of his 
times as of the early age in which he lived, should 
be considered a competent witness on this head. 
He states that the heretics endeavoured to impose 
upon people by alledging texts of scripture for 
their particular tenets, though they quoted them 
in a very unfair and mutilated manner ; and that 
they appealed to them because they were the only 
writings whose authority was universally allowed.! 
Testimony more impressive than this, to the apos- 
tolic authorship of the New Testament books, can- 
not be demanded. 

7th. Tlie several heads of evidence ichich have now 
been made out in j^roof of the authenticity of the 

* Storr & Flatt's Bib. Theol. i. 67. f Lardner, iv. 521, 2, 



80 LECTURE II. 

New Testament^ cannot be pretended to loith regard 
to any of those writings lohich are called Apocryphal 
Scriptures. To some who are aware that in the 
early ages of Christianity there existed a variety 
of apocryphal gospels and other compositions, pre- 
tending to have been written by the apostles, it 
may be difficult to imagine by what rule the true 
works of the inspired writers were separated, 
without embarrassment and with sufficient confi- 
dence, from all mere pretenders to that high origi- 
nal. But it greatly enhances one's sense of the 
prodigious weight of evidence in support of the 
true scriptures, to learn how broad and unques- 
tionable was the distinction. 

Among the apocryphal writings, there are two 
classes. One is that of histories which assumed 
the names of the apostles, but were literally forge- 
ries and therefore spurious, as well as apocryphal. 
The other consists of certain writings of a chris- 
tian character, and either entirely or in part histo- 
rical, which are not spurious, but called apocryphal 
because their age and authors are unknown, or 
their authority is of no weight. 

Of the first class, it may be asserted, without any 
hazard, that none are quoted within three hundred 
years after the birth of Christ, by any writer now 
extant or known ; or if any are quoted, it is inva- 
riably with marks of censure and rejection,* The 
only possible exception is the gospel according to 

* Paley's Evidences. 



LECTURE IT. 81 

the Hebrews^ " which (says Lardner) was probably 
either St. Matthew's gospel in his original Hebrew, 
with some additions ; or, as I rather think, a He- 
brew translation of St. Matthew's Greek original, 
with the additions above mentioned." But this is 
quoted nowhere, without marks of discredit, except 
in one place in the works of Clement of Alexandria. 
Of the second class, none but a book called the 
Preaching of Peter^ and another entitled the Re- 
velation of Peter ^ are quoted, without positive con- 
demnation, by any writer of the three first centu- 
ries. These are spoken of only by the same Cle- 
ment of Alexandria. Compare with these facts, 
the immense mass and variety of concurrent testi- 
monies to the books of the New Testament in 
the writers of the three first centuries ; testimonies 
from all countries and all classes — orthodox or he- 
retics ; remember for example that you may find in 
the extant works of Tertullian, or of Irenseus, or of 
Clement of Alexandria, more and larger quotations 
of the small volume of the New Testament, than you 
can find in writers of all characters, for several ages, 
of the works of Cicero, though voluminous and al- 
ways so universally popular ; and it will be evident 
that the apocryphal writings could have presented 
no difficulties in ascertaining the authentic books of 
the apostles. None of them were read as having 
apostolic authority in the churches of Christians ; 
nor admitted into their sacred volume ; nor included 
in their catalogue's ; nor noticed as authentic by the 
adversaries of Christianity ; nor appealed to by all 
11 



82 



LECTURE II. 



parlies calling theniselves Christians, as authority 
in their controversies ; nor treated with sullicient 
respect to be made the subjects of commentaries, 
collections or translations, unless the brief notes 
on the Revelation of Peter, by Clement of Alex- 
andria, should merit exception. So wide was the 
contrast between the true and the false ; so easily 
were the true scriptures distinguished from all un- 
authorized pretenders to that honourable name. 
But this is capable of being exhibited still more 
impressively. We have stated several important 
evidences of authenticity^ all of which are found 
in the New Testament ; and none in any of tlie 
apocryphal writings. We will now exhibit certain 
evidences of simrioiisncss, all of which ar6 found 
in the apocryphal writings, and none in those of 
the New Testament. The reasons which render 
the authenticity of a work suspicious, are thus enu- 
merated in the learned Introduction to the JVeio Tes- 
tament hj Micltaelis : 1. When doubts have been 
entertained, from its first appearance, whether it 
w^as the work of its reputed author. 2. When his 
immediate friends who were able to judge, have 
denied it to be his. 3. When a long series of years 
has elapsed after his death, in which the book was 
unknown, and in which it must have been mentioned 
or quc»ted, had it been in existence. 4. Wlien the 
style is dilferent from that of his other writings ; 
or in case no others remain, difl'erent from what 
miglit be reasonably expected. 5. When events 
are recorded which happened later than the time 



LECTURE II. 83 

of the pretended author. 6. When opinions are ad- 
vanced contradictory to those which he is known 
to have maintained in other writings.* Now it 
may be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that 
the apocryphal books exhibit all these evidences of 
spuriousness ; none of them being exempt from 
nearly the whole list, and few of them deficient 
in any particular. While, with equal confidence, 
it is asserted that the books of the New Testament 
exhibit none of them. In no book of that holy 
volume, are opinions professed that are contradic- 
tory to any which the reputed author is known 
elsewhere to have maintained; nor are facts recorded 
which happened later than the age in waich he lived ; 
nor is the style different from that of his other wri- 
tings, or from what might reasonably have been 
expected from his pen. No book of the New Tes- 
tament was unknown during a long series of years 
subsequent to the death of the individual to whom 
it is ascribed; none can be shown to have been 
denied by the near friends of the reputed author as 
his production ; no doubts can be proved to have 
been entertained of the authenticity of any part of 
the New Testament at the time of its first publication. 
That apocryphal writings existed in the first 
centuries, is a fact which so far from embarrassing 
the evidence for the authenticity of the New Testa- 
ment ])ooks, and the truth of the gospel history, very 
materially confirms it. Had it not been notorious 

* Michaelis' Inst., i. p. 25, 



84 LECTURE II. 

that the apostles did write Gospels and Epistles, it is 
not likely that so many would have attempted to 
pass off spurious Gospels, &c., in their names. Had 
it not been that the fame of Christ and his apostles 
was very great in all lands, from the beginning, it 
is not probable that all these apocryphal authors 
would have thought of writing about them, or in 
their names ; much less that they would have 
expected a market for their works. Had it 
not been notorious and universally allowed that 
Christ and his apostles wrought miracles, and did 
many wonderful works, it is not probable that all 
these writers would have taken it for granted, 
and sought to built up their particular opinions 
upon the assumption. " They all suppose the dig- 
nity of our Lord's person, and a power of working 
miracles, together with a high degree of author- 
ity, as having been conveyed by him to his apos- 
tles."* 

That apocryphal books should have been pub- 
lished in the name of the apostles, is precisely what 
was to be expected from the wide circulation, great 
popularity, and eminent reverence, which their 
authentic writings had obtained. Current notes 
soon awaken a disposition to counterfeit them. 
Popular medicines soon bring into the market 
apocryphal inventions wearing their names. The 
effort to pass off the latter is the best proof of the 
estimation of the former. 

* Laiclner, iii. 131. 



LECTURE II. 85 

The New Testament writers have been treated, 
in this respect, precisely like others. So writes 
Augustine : " No writings ever had a better testi- 
mony afforded them than those of the apostles and 
evangelists ; nor does it weaken the credit and au- 
thority of books received by the church from the 
beginning, that some other writings have been 
without ground, and falsely, ascribed to the apos- 
tles ; for the like has happened, for instance, to 
Hippocrates ; but yet his genuine works have been 
distinguished from others, which have been pub- 
lished under his name."* Such, also, has been the 
case with many others. Several spurious orations 
were published under the names of Lysias and 
Demosthenes. Works were ascribed to Plautus, 
and Virgil, and Horace,, which had no title to their 
names. But it was no difficult matter for the 
Greek and Roman critics to separate the genuine 
from the apocryphal works of those authors. Thus 
it was also with the early Christians. They 
proved all things, and held fast that only uihichicas 
good. " We receive Peter and the other apostles, 
as Christ (said Serapion, bishop of Antioch) ; but 
as skilful men, we reject those writings which are 
falsely ascribed to them." 

Here we might safely leave the question of au- 
thenticity ; for, if the evidence adduced does not 
prove the New Testament books to have proceeded 
from the apostles, no book of a passed age has any 

* Lardner, iii. 134. 



86 LECTURE 11. 

pretension to authenticity ; that Milton wrote Pa- 
radise Lost must he considered unworthy of credit ; 
that the orations bearing the name of Cicero, 
were composed or delivered by that orator, must 
he condemned as one of the apocryphal inventions 
of some age of monks and darkness. '' I find more 
sure marks of authenticity in the New Testament 
(said sir Isaac Newton), than in any profane his- 
tory whatever." 

But inasmuch as your minds cannot be furnished 
with too much information on this fundamental 
subject, I will reserve some important views for a 
subsequent lecture. 

There is a lesson for the believer, in what has 
been exhibited, of great practical interest. It is 
manifest, from the testimonies adduced, that the 
scriptures of the New Testament were treated, 
among the primitive Christians, not only as true 
and possessed of inspired authority, in reference to 
all questions of doctrine and obedience ; but as 
very precious, " more to be desired than gold." 
They loved them as an inestimable treasure ; they 
kept them, consulted them, and exalted them in 
the hearts, and houses, and assemblies, as a com- 
panion for every trial ; a guide in every difficulty ; 
a gift of God, for the preservation and honour of 
which they were ready to shed their blood. They 
felt them to be " profitable for doctrine, reproof, 
correction, and instruction in righteousness." How 
does all this rebuke the lukewarmncss Avitli which 
the scriptures are regarded by too many professing 



LECTURE II. 87 

Christians of the present day. In primitive times, 
believers would read them, though they paid for 
the privilege with their lives. In these days, mul- 
titudes who call themselves believers, can hardly 
be persuaded to search the scriptures, though every 
facility is afforded, and the Bible is in honour. 
What a tremendous account must he give to God, 
who neglects His word ! Let us imitate not only 
the affectionate devotion with which the primitive 
Christians read the Bible, but also the diligent zeal 
with which they surmounted innumerable obsta- 
cles, in circulating copies of its books through the 
world. We possess facilities for such an object 
which they had not. The press is placed in our 
hands for this very purpose. It is our gift of 
tongues. Let us realize the responsibility we are 
under, for the improvement of so rich a talent ; 
and speed its work, and multiply its branches of 
application, till the sound of the Gospel has gone 
out into all the earth, and the words of Jesus to 
the ends of the world ; and there is nothing hid 
from the liarht thereof. 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE III. 



AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. 



Our attention was exclusively occupied, during 
tlie last lecture, in tracing up the line of testimony 
by which the church of Christ, in these days, is 
certified that her sacred books, composing the vo- 
lume of the New Testament, are those very books 
which were written by the apostles of the Lord 
Jesus. A series of attestations was followed up, 
by which we were conducted into the very age and 
presence of the apostles, and enabled to inquire of 
those who, having been their contemporaries, and in 
habits of intercourse with them, must necessarily 
have known what books they wrote. A mass of 
evidence was obtained, by which the authenticity 
12 



90 LECTURE HI. 

of the New Testament was placed on the most im- 
moveable basis. But inasmuch as we are now 
laying the foundation of our subsequent and more 
direct arguments for the truth of Christianity as a 
divine revelation ; it is of the greatest importance 
that, in respect to this preliminary subject, every 
mind be well assured, and that nothing of import- 
ance to the impressiveness, as well as sufficiency, 
of the evidence, be omitted. In the present lecture, 
therefore, we pursue still farther the question to 
which the last was devoted. 

From the whole tenor of the previous lecture, 
it is evident that the canon of the New Testament ; 
in other words, the collection of those books which 
were considered as the inspired and authoritative 
writings of the apostles and evangelists, to the ex- 
clusion of all others, was not made loithout great 
care, and the most deliberate, intelligent investigation. 
Such is the witnessing of an eminent writer of the 
fourth century. " Our canonical books (says Augus- 
tine), which are of the highest authority among us, 
have been settled with great care : they ought to be 
few, lest their value should be diminished; and yet 
they are so many, and written by so many persons, 
that their agreement, throughout, is wonderful."* 
The method pursued by the early Christians in deter- 
mining what books had a just claim to the charac- 
ter of canonical scriptures, was precisely that by 
which we have been investigating the same subject. 

* LLai.lni.'r, Li. 590. 



LECTURE III. 91 

It was not enough, for the reception of a writing, 
that it came to them under the name of an apostle, 
and was considered by some as justly entitled to 
that honour. Its descent was carefully traced. 
How was it regarded by the preceding generation, 
and by the generation before that ? Was it known 
by those who lived nearest the time and the person 
associated with its claims ? Had it been received 
by the churches ; referred to and quoted, as pos- 
sessing canonical authority, by christian writers 
since the period of its general publication ? Had 
it been handed down by the general and concur- 
rent tradition of the church, written and unwritten, 
as the work of the writer whose name it bears 7 
Such was the mode which, we know from the re- 
maining works of Irenseus, TertuUian, Eusebius, 
Cyril, and Augustine, tfec, was employed in their 
days, and in all times of the primitive church. 
" The books of the canonical scriptures (says Au- 
gustine), established in the times of the apostles, 
and confirmed by the testimony of the succession 
of bishops and churches, in all following times, are 
placed in a peculiar degree of authority, to which 
the judgment and understanding of all pious men 
are subject." 

The numerous catalogues which have descended 
to us from the early centuries, are sufficient evi- 
denc-e of the care with which the canon of the 
New Testament was settled. In primitive times, 
when, from a variety of causes, spurious books 



92 LECTURE III. 

abounded, and the distant and scattered churches, 
incapable of much intercourse with those near the 
centre of christian light, were most liable to be 
deceived, these catalogues were of the greatest im- 
portance. How numerous they must have been, 
may be, in somewise, conceived from the fact that, 
although a very small portion only of the works of 
the first four centuries are extant, there are among 
them no less than thirteen independent catalogues, 
all of them composed by authors scattered over 
only about one hundred and eighty, out of the first 
four hundred years after the birth of Christ. 

The same care is seen in the pains that were 
taken to obtain the most exact information as to 
the authenticity of the books bearing apostolic 
names ; as well as from the decisive censure and 
aversion with which an attempt to pass a spurious 
work upon the church, was visited. Pious and 
learned heads of the churches used to journey to 
Palestine, and reside there for a considerable length 
of time, for the express object of obtaining what- 
ever valuable loiowledge might be found there, as 
to the New Testament writings. And of the treat- 
ment bestowed upon attempted forgeries, Ave have 
an example in the case of a certain presbyter of 
Asia, soon after the death of St. John, who pub- 
lished a book, which is still extant, under the title 
of the Acts of Paul and Thccla. Tlie attempt at 
imposition was cliarged upon the author, and con- 
fessed. Whereupon he was degraded from his 
ofiice, and the whole matter was notified tc> the 



LECTURE IIL 93 

churches, that they might feel the need of the 
strictest care thereafter.* 

The gradual steps by which the books of the 
New Testament were multiplied to their present 
number, afforded the best opportunity for a careful 
and accurate determination of their authenticity. 
Had they all appeared at once, claiming, in their 
collective form, to be received by the churches as 
inspired scripture ; the attention of Christians being 
thus divided among twenty-seven independent wri- 
tings which professed to have been written by 
eight different authors, the diligence of their inves- 
tigation would have been also divided ; its accu- 
racy would have been endangered, and the opportu- 
nity of imposition greatly increased. But such was 
not the case. The books of the New Testament 
were published singly. They came before the 
churches, one by one, with considerable intervals 
between them, thus giving time for the claims of each 
to be deliberately and singly examined. The Epistle 
to the Romans appeared at the bar of the church in 
the city of Rome, and had its authority as a writing of 
St. Paul determined, without embarrassment from 
any question as to the authenticity of the Epistle to 
the Ephesians. The Ephesians received the Epistle 
directed to them, and could sit in judgment upon 
its claims, without any necessity of deciding, at 
that time, upon the authenticity of the Epistle to the 
Romans, or Corinthians, or Philippians. Thus were 

* Lardner, i. 435. 



94 LECTURE III. 

there several years between the hcgmning and com- 
pletion of the canon of the Ne^v Testament. For 
a little while, a portion of the church might possess 
an additional book, which a distant region, on ac- 
count of the difficulty of multiplying and trans- 
mitting copies, would not have received. It may 
have been a period of some years before a church 
in the distant parts of Asia received and was en- 
abled satisfactorily to authenticate the Epistle to 
the Romans. Meanwhile the canon of scripture 
might be composed of more books at Rome than 
at the church supposed. 

How long this state of things continued ; or 
when precisely the canon was closed, is a ques- 
tion rather of curiosity than of importance ; the 
authenticity and canonical character of any par- 
ticular book being independent of its determina- 
tion. We know that the principal parts of the 
New Testament were collected before the death 
of St. John, or at least not long subsequent 
to that event. But what individual, or what 
assemblage of persons, collected them ; lohcrc^ and 
precisely lolicn^ the work was done, we may in- 
dulge in plausible conjecture, but cannot certainly 
ascertahi. But what connexion have sucli matters 
with the question of apostolic origin ? If the Epis- 
tle to the Romans, or the gospel of Matthew was 
written by the disciple whose name it bears, it 
surely matters little when it became the companion 
of other authentic books in the formation of a se- 
parate volume ; or wlu) arranged its place i.u tliat 



LECTURE III, " 95 

volume ; or when an assemblage of christian fathers 
inserted its name in a catalogue, and published it 
to the churches as a canonical writing. It was 
canonical as soon as it was composed. It was a 
part of the New Testament from the moment of 
its birth. Had the books of scripture never been 
collected into a volume, but kept in separation, as 
they were first published, to the present time, al- 
though their preservation would have been more 
difficult, their authority would have been the same, 
and the canon of the New Testament, complete. 
Had no father of the church, nor any ecclesiastical 
council ever issued a declaration of opinion as to 
what writings should be included in the list of 
canonical scriptures, we should have wanted inr 
deed much valuable testimony now possessed from 
such sources ; but the essential claim of each in- 
spired book to a place in the canon would have 
remained unaltered. To substantiate the title of 
any portion of the New Testament to so honoura- 
ble a place, we need only the proof that it was 
written by the apostle or evangelist to whom it is 
ascribed. For this we require the testimony of 
primitive antiquity. So far as the opinion of ancient 
councils or authors is deserving of attention, as a 
matter of testimony, it is of value in the settlement 
of the canon ; and in this view, such opinion is un- 
questionably of the highest importance ; and what 
we have already exhibited, of this kind, deserves 
the greatest consideration. But the point to be 
especially noted is, that the proof of authenticity in 



96 LECTURE III. 

the subject before us, is the proof of canonical au- 
thority ; that the canon began when the first Gos- 
pel or Epistle was published; that it increased with 
every additional publication by inspired men, and 
was complete and closed, the moment the last writing 
of the New Testament was issued to the churches ; 
though at the same time but few of them may have 
been acquainted with it ; no ecclesiastical assembly 
may have sanctioned it, and no union had been 
made with other inspired books, so as to present 
them to the churches as a collection of canonical 
writings, under the general name of the New Tes- 
tament. 

As to the arrangement of these books in a single 
volume, it must have been a work of time, accord- 
ing to the relative situation and intercourse of any 
particular region of Christianity, " Those churches 
which were situated nearest to the place where any 
particular books were published, would, of course, 
obtain copies much earlier than churches in remote 
parts of the world. For a considerable period the 
collection of these books in each church must have 
been necessarily incomplete, for it would take some 
time to send to the church or people with whom 
the autographs were deposited, and to write off 
fair copies. This necessary process will also ac- 
count for the fact, that some of the smaller books 
were not received by the churches so early, nor so 
universally, as the larger. The solicitude of the 
churches to possess, immediately, the more exten- 
sive books of the New Testament, would doubtless 



LECTURE III. 97 

induce them to make a great exertion to acquire 
copies ; but, probably, the smaller would not be so 
much spoken of, nor would there be so strong a 
desire to obtain them without delay. Considering 
how difficult it is now, with all our improvements 
in the typographical art, to multiply copies of the 
scriptures with sufficient rapidity, it is truly won- 
derful how so many churches as were founded 
during the first century, to say nothing of indivi- 
duals, could all be supplied with copies of the New 
Testament, when there was no speedier method of 
producing them than by w^riting every letter with 
the pen. Even as early as the time when Peter 
wrote his second Epistle, the writings of Paul were 
in the hands of the churches, and were classed with 
the other scriptures.* And the citation from these 
books by the earliest christian writers, living in 
different countries, demonstrates that, from the 
time of their publication, they were sought after 
with avidity, and were widely dispersed." " How 
intense the interest which the first Christians felt 
in the writings of the apostles can scarcely be con- 
ceived by us, who have been familiar with these 
books from oar earliest years. How solicitous 
would they be, for example, who had never seen 
Paul, but had heard of his wonderful conversion 
and extraordinary labours and gifts, to read his 
writings !■ And probably they who had enjoyed 
the high privilege of hearing this apostle preach 

* 2Peter, iii. 14, 15. 

13 



98 LECTURE III. 

would not be less desirous of reading his Epistles ! 
As we know from the nature of the case, as well 
as from testimony, that many uncertain accounts 
of Christ's discourses and miracles had obtained 
circulation, how greatly would the primitive Chris- 
tians rejoice, to obtain an authentic history from 
the pen of an apostle, or from one who wrote pre- 
cisely what was dictated by an apostle 7 We need 
no longer wonder, therefore, that every church 
should wish to possess a collection of the writings 
of the apostles ; and knowing them to be the pro- 
ductions of inspired men, they would want no fur- 
ther sanction of their authority. All that was 
requisite, was to be certain that the book was 
indeed written by the apostle whose name it 
bore."* Hence the care of St. Paul, as he com- 
monly wrote by an amanuensis, to have the saluta- 
tion in his own hand, or to annex his signature : 
as, for example in the second Epistle to the Thes- 
salonians : " Tlie salutation of Paul irlth mine oion 
hand, lohich is the token in every Epistle : so I 
write" Hence, also, the care so often manifest in 
the Epistles, to designate those by name to whom 
the office of carrying them, whither they were ad- 
dressed, was entrusted. 

From the authorities quoted in the previous lec- 
ture, it must be full in your recollection that while 
the agreement of the ancient churches may be 
considered to have been complete, so far as is im- 

* Alexander on the Canon, p. 138, 6tc. 



LECTURE III. 99 

portant to the argument for the divine origin of 
Christianity ; still there was a difference of opinion 
as to the authenticity and cononical authority of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews; of the Epistle of James ; 
the second of Peter ; the second and third of John ; 
the Epistle of Jude ; and the book of Revelation. 
This diversity was not, by any means, so great or 
important as some suppose. Had it not been for 
the great care and candour of those early Chris- 
tians, from whom we learn the fact, it would have 
seemed of too limited an extent, and too inconsi- 
derable in its origin, to merit any more than a very 
transient notice in their writings. But we have 
no reason to regret the publicity they have given 
it. They have thus put into our hands a very 
strong proof of the discriminating care and jealous 
vigilance with which the primitive churches inves- 
tigated the title of any book to admission into the 
canon of the New Testament. That some were 
doubted, though afterwards universally acknow- 
ledged, exhibits in a very strong light the certain 
authenticity of all those of which there was never 
a question. 

The canonical authority of the six Epistles, above 
named as well as of the Apocalypse, has no material 
connexion with the argumentof the ensuing lectures. 
The evidence of the divine origin and revelation of 
Christianity is entirely independent of the question 
of their authenticity. Should we acknowledge 
them to be spurious, no point of christian doctrine 
or duty would be removed ; no gospel truth would 



100 LECTURE HI, 

be shaken ; no evidence of divine revelation would 
be diminished. To vindicate their authenticity 
cannot, therefore, be required of a lecturer on the 
evidences of Christianity. It is the appropriate 
office of the biblical critic, and belongs to discus- 
sions on the canon of scripture, and to the prole- 
gomena of a commentary, instead of the course we 
are now pursuing. But lest the mere statement of 
the fact that doubts were once entertained as to 
the authenticity of these writings, should leave on 
some minds an impression unfavourable to their 
character, as inspired scriptures, it will be well to 
bestow a moment's attention to the amount of 
importance to which those doubts are justly en- 
titled. 

With regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews, no 
question was entertained as to its being the work 
of St. Paul, among the churches of the earlier cen- 
turies, except those of the Latin Christians. The 
fact that the Arians were the first in the Greek 
churches who are said to have denied that it was 
written by St. Paul, is an important testimony in 
its favour. The objections of the Latins did not 
pretend to any ecclesiastical tradition, or any au- 
thority of earlier churches, in opposition to its 
Pauline origin ; but were based entirely on its 
internal character, and especially on the han- 
dle which the fourth and fifth verses of the 
sixith chapter seemed to allord the sect of the Mon- 
tanists, in vindication of their prominent doctrine, 
that those guilty of grievous transgressions should 



LECTURE 111, 101 

be irrevocably cut off from the church. Hence it 
was that Jerome and Augustine, though of the 
Latins, could not adopt the opinions held by many 
of their contemporaries, being convinced of their 
incorrectness, by the testimony of the ancient 
churches to the authenticity of the Epistle. 

It should be remarked, that all those who ques- 
tioned the canonical authority of this Epistle, 
treated it with high respect as a christian and very 
ancient writing of the apostolic age, if not by an 
apostle's hand. They ascribed it either to Barna- 
bas or Clement. But for this they had no testi- 
mony to appeal to. On the contrary, the testimony 
of the earliest christian writers is very decidedly for 
St. Paul. The fathers of the Greek church unani- 
mously ascribed it to him. Jerome, of the 
fourth century, testifies that it was received as a 
production of that apostle, not only by the eastern 
churches, but by all the Greek ecclesiastical writers. 
" I receive it (said he) as genuine — guided by the 
authority of the ancient writers." Eusebius, the 
historian of the church of the fourth century, quotes 
it as the work of St. Paul, and says it had, not 
without reason, been reckoned among the other 
writings of the apostle. Theodoret positively as- 
serts that Eusebius received this Epistle as St. 
Paul's, and that he manifested that almost all the 
ancients were of the same opinion. Augustine said 
" he followed the opinion of the churches of the 
east, who received it among the canonical scrip- 
tures." Origen, born A. D. 184, expresses his opi- 



102 LECTURE III, 

nion that " it was not without cause that the an- 
cients (i. e. the immediate successors of the apos- 
tles) regarded this as an Epistle of Paul." The 
internal evidence is decidedly in favour of its 
having been written by that apostle. The 
salutation from the Jewish Christians who had 
been driven out of Italy (Heb. xiii. 24.), and the 
mention of Timothy as his fellow traveller (xiii. 
23.), are very applicable to Paul. Not only does 
the general scope of this Epistle tend to the same 
point on which so much stress is laid in his other 
writings, that we are justified only by faith in 
Christ, and that the works and institutions of the 
law are of no avail to our salvation ; but there are 
also various propositions found in it which are 
conspicuous in his other works. The same cha- 
racteristic warmth and energy of expression appear 
in this as in all writings ascribed in the New Tes- 
tament to the pen of St. Paul. Hebraisms abound 
in it as in his other Epistles. It contains particu- 
lar expressions, phrases, and colocations of words, 
which are either peculiar to him, or are most fre- 
quent in his compositions* But as this is not the 
place to do justice to a question of so much impor- 
tance, and yet not material to tl\e argument of these 
lectures, I must refer you, for further knowledge and 
satisfaction, to the learned and complete work of 
professor Stuart, of Andover, on the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, or to an excellent article in the "Bibli- 

* Smuckcr's translaiiou of Stoii uiiJ FluU's Dib. Theology 



LECTURE III. 103 

cal NotevS and Dissertations/' recently from the 
pen of Joseph John Gurney, of the society of 
Friends, in England. 

The Epistle of James, being addressed to Jewish 
believers, was for some time, to a considerable ex- 
tent, unknown to the Gentile Christians. While 
this was the case, its authenticity was questioned, 
or rather was not certified among the Gentiles. 
As soon as this ceased to be the case, its authenti- 
city was undoubted. It is of great importance to 
the character of this Epistle, that in the Syriac 
version, made at the end of the first or the bginning 
of the second century, while the second Epistle of 
Peter, the second and third of John, and the Apo- 
calypse, are omitted, the Epistle of James, written 
particularly to the people for whom the version 
was made, is included and placed on an equality 
with all those books about which there was never 
a question in the church. In proportion as it 
became known among the Gentile Christians, it 
passed through a severe and accurate scrutiny, till, 
in a short time, it was universally received, and 
has ever since been universally honoured, as an au- 
thentic and inspired portion of the oracles of God. 

With regard to the remaining Epistles, concerning 
the authenticity of which doubts were for a while 
entertained, it will suffice to remark in this place, 
that the fact of their not having been immediately 
recognised throughout the church as the works of 
the apostles, only shows that the persons who were 
in doubt had not yet received sufficient information 



104 LECTURE III. 

to make tip their judgment ; and that the primitive 
Christians, so far from being so greedy after addi- 
tions to the sacred canon as to be easily deceived 
by a plausible pretension to apostolic origin, v^ere 
extremely deliberate and cautious in examining 
every candidate for admission into the catalogue of 
scripture. Such being the case, the subsequent re- 
ception of these Epistles, as soon as full time vras 
given them to be universally circulated and knov\^n, 
is perfect proof that they were capable of enduring 
the most trying investigation of their inspired ori- 
gin, and were honoured with a unanimous verdict 
as the veritable writings of those to whom they 
were ascribed, and as part and parcel of the word 
of God, The reader may find abundant satisfac- 
tion, with regard to them, in Dr. Alexander's 
excellent work on the canon of scripture. 

It has been stated, that at one period doubts were 
entertained in the churches as to the authenticity of 
the book of Revelation. Those doubts imply no 
deficiency of testimony. Until the fourth century, 
the character of this book was undoubted, and its 
authority was universally acknowledged ; only one 
writer questioning whether John the evangelist 
was its author, and even he admitting that it was 
written by inspiration of God. About the com- 
mencement of the fourth century, the JMillenarian 
controversy having arisen and distracted the 
churches, and the mysterious character of the book 
having been extensively employed in the support of 
new and extravagant doctrines, its character de- 



LECTURE III. 105 

dined ; and without any reference to testimony in 
the case, its authenticity was by some, though by 
no means universally or for a long time, brought 
into question. Thus Eusebius, of that century, 
after having given a catalogue of the books univer- 
sally acknowledged, writes : " After these, if it be 
thought fit, may be placed the Revelation of John, 
concerning which we shall observe the different 
opinions at a proper time." And in another place : 
'' There are, concerning this book, different opi- 
nions." " This is the first doubt expressed by any 
respectable writer, concerning the canonical au- 
thority of this book ; and Eusebius did not reject 
it, but would have placed it next after those which 
were received with universal consent. And we 
find, at this very time, the most learned and judi- 
cious of the fathers received the Revelation with' 
out scruple, and annexed it to their catalogues of 
the books of the New Testament."* It is of no 
small importance that a book so full of evidence 
against the heresies of the celebrated Dr. Priest- 
ley, should have received from his pen the 
following testimony: " This book of Revela- 
tion, I have no doubt, was written by the apostle 
John, Sir Isaac Newton, with great truth, says, 
he does not find amj other book of the JVeio Testa- 
ment so strongly attested^ or commented upon so early 
as this. Indeed I think it impossible for any intel- 
ligent and candid person to peruse it without being 

* Alexander on the Canon. 

14 



10^ LECTURE in, 

struck, in the most forcible manner, with the pecu- 
liar dignity and .sublimity of its composition, supe- 
rior to that of any other writing whatever ; so as 
to be convinced that, considering the age in w^hich 
it appeared, none but a person divinely inspired 
could have written it."* It is true, and at first 
may seem surprising, that while a majority of the 
ancient catalogues contain this book, there are 
many in which it is omitted ; though it is known 
that the authors of some of these acknowledged 
its authenticity. The omissions are satisfactorily 
explained by the consideration that the object of 
these catalogues was the guidance of the people 
in reading the scriptures ; and since the mysteri- 
ousness of this book and the use made of it, on the 
side of the Millenarian errors, when the catalogues 
were chiefly composed, seemed to render it inex- 
pedient that it should be as generally read as 
the other scriptures, its name was excluded from 
severfil lists of books for universal use, without any 
intention of pronouncing upon its canonical cha- 
racter. 

Having now exhibited satisfactory evidence of 
the aiithenticity of all the books of the New Tes- 
tament, be it remarked that, while every part of 
the sacred volume is of inspired authority, and 
therefore of such importance as that no man can 
take away from it or add unto it without heinous 
oft'ence against God; still the argument for the 

'■^ Pncstley's Notes on Scripture. 



LECTURE III. i07 

divine mission of Jesus and for the divine origin of 
Christianity depends chiefly upon the historical por- 
tions^ and would exhibit no deficiency were no at- 
tention paid to the authenticity of the others. In 
what remains to be said, by w^ay of addition to the 
various and unequalled evidence already adduced, 
we shall have a view particularly to the Gospels 
and Acts of the Apostles. 

The testimony of the adversaries of Christianity, 
It may be said, with some appearance of a plau- 
sible objection to the testimony hitherto produced, 
that it is all derived, either from the devoted friends 
of the gospel, or else from those who professed to 
be its disciples. Is there no testimony from ene- 
mies? The books of the New Testament were 
widely circulated; christian advocates, in their 
controversies with the Heathen, freely appealed to 
them ; Heathens, in their works of attack and de- 
fence, must have spoken of them. In what light 
did they regard them 7 Did they ascribe them to 
their reputed authors, or question their authenticity ? 
Now we do not grant that the testimony already 
produced is justly liable to the least disparage- 
ment on account of its having been derived exclu- 
sively from the friends of Christ. That certain an- 
cients believed the facts contained in Ca3sar's Com- 
mentaries has never been supposed to diminish the 
value of their testimony to the authenticity of 
that work. We will take occasion, by and by, to 
show that the very fact that an early witness to 
the New Testament history was not an enemy, 



]08 LECTURE in, 

but a friend, of the gospel and liad become a friend 
from having been once an enemy, is just the 
ingredient in his testimony that gives it peculiai- 
conclusiveness, Still, however, we are under no 
temptation to undervalue the importance of an ap- 
peal to the opinions of adversaries. Let us inquire 
of enemies as well as friends — and first of Julian. 
Julian, the emperor, united intelligence, learning, 
and power, with a persecuting zeal, in a resolute 
effort to root out Christianity. In the year 361, 
he composed a vrork against its claims. We may 
be w^ell assured, that if any thing could have been 
said against the authenticity of its books, he would 
have used it. His -work is not extant ; but from 
long extracts, found in the ans^ver by Cyril, a few 
years after, as well as from the statements of his 
©pinions and arguments by this Avriter, it is unques- 
tionable that Julian bore witness to the authenti- 
city of the four Gosj^els and of the Acts of the 
Apostles. He concedes, and argues from, their 
early date ; quotes them by name as the genuine 
works of their reputed authors; proceeds upon 
the supposition, as a thing undeniable, that they 
were the only historical books wliich Christians 
received as canonical — the only authentic narra- 
tives of Christ and his apostles, and of the doctrine 
they delivered. He has also quoted, or plainly re- 
ferred to, the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, 
and Galatians, and no where insinuates that the 
authenticity of any portion of tlie New Testament 



L-ECTURE m. 1^9 

ct)iild reasonably be questioned* Let us ascend 
a little higher. 

Bierocles, president of Bithynia, and a learned 
man, of about the year 303, united, with a cruel 
persecution of Christians, the publication of a book 
against Christianity, in which, instead of issuing 
even the least suspicion that the New Testament 
was not written by those to whom its several parts 
were ascribed, he confines his eflfort to the hunt of 
internal flaws and contradictions. Beside this tacit 
acknowledgment, his work, or the extracts of it that 
remain, refer to, at least, six out of the eight wri- 
ters of the books of the New Testament.! Let us 
ascend still higher. 

Porphyry^ universally allowed to have been the 
most severe and formidable adversary, in all primi- 
tive antiquity, wrote, about the year 270, a work 
against Christianity. It is evident that he was 
well acquainted with the New Testament. Li 
the little that has been preserved of his wtI- 
tings, there are plain references to the Gospels of 
Matthew, Mark, and John, the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, and the Epistle to the Galatians.J Speaking 
of Christians, he calls Matthew their evangelist. 
" He possessed every advantage which natural abi- 
lities or political situation could afford, to discover 
whether the New Testament was a genuine work 
of the apostles and evangelists, or whether it was 
imposed upon the world after the decease of its 

* Lardner, iv.-341. f lb,, iv.. 259, % lb,, iv. 234. 



110 LECTURE III. 

pretended authors. But no trace of this suspicion 
is any where to be found ; nor did it ever occur to 
Porphyry to suppose that it was spurious."* How 
well this ingenious writer understood the A'alue of 
an argument against the authenticity of a book of 
scripture, and how greedily he would have enlisted 
it in his war against Christianity, could he have 
found such a weapon, is evident from his well 
known effort to escape the prophetic inspiration 
of the book of Daniel, by denying that it was 
written in the times of that prophet. We may 
ascend still higher. 

Celsus, esteemed a man of learning among the 
ancients, and a wonderful philosopher among mo- 
dern infidels, wrote a laboured argument against 
the Christians. He flourished in the year 176, or 
about seventy-six years after the death of St. John. 
None can accuse him of a want of zeal to ruin 
Christianity, None can complain against his testi- 
mony, as deficient in antiquity. An industrious, 
ingenious, learned, adversary of that age, must 
have known whatever was suspicious in the au- 
thorship of the New Testament writings. His book 
entitled " The True Word,^^ is unhappily lost ; but 
in the answer, composed by Origen, the extracts 
from it are so large, that it is difficult to find of any 
ancient book, not extant, more extensive remains. 
The author quotes, from the Gospels, such a va- 
riety of particulars, even in these fragments, that 

*■ Marsh's iAlicluiciis, i. 43. 



LECTURE III. Ill 

the enumeration would prove almost an abridg- 
ment of the Gospel narrative.* Origen has noticed 
in them about eighty quotations from the books of 
the New Testament, or references to them. Among 
these there is abundant evidence that Celsus was 
acquainted with the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, 
and John. Several of Paul's Epistles are alluded 
to. His whole argument proceeds upon the con- 
cession that the christian scriptures were the works 
of the authors to whom they were ascribed. Such 
a thing as a suspicion, to the contrary, is not 
breathed ; and yet no man ever wrote against 
Christianity with greater virulence. Hence it ap- 
pears, " by the testimony of one of the most ma- 
licious adversaries the christian religion ever had, 
and who was also a man of considerable parts and 
learning, that the writings of the evangelists were 
extant in his time, which was the next century to 
that in which the apostles lived ; and that those 
accounts were written by Christ's own disciples, 
and, consequently, in the very age in which the 
facts, there related, were done, and when, there- 
fore, it would have been the easiest thing in the 
world to have convicted them of falsehood, if they 
had not been true."! " Who can forbear (says the 
devout Doddridge) adoring the depth of divine 
wisdom, in laying up such a firm foundation of our 

* Doddridge, in Lardner, iv. 145 and 7. 
t Answer to " Ciiristianity as old as the Creation," by Leland, 
vol. ii. c. V. p. 150-154. 



112 LECTURE ni. 

faith in the gospel history, in the writings of one 
who was so inveterate an enemy to it, and so inde- 
fatigable in his attempts to overthrow it."* Who, 
I will add, can help the acknowledgment that in 
Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and Julian, all of 
them learned controversialists, as well as devoted 
opponents and persecutors of Christians, extending 
their testimony, from the seventieth year after the 
last of the apostles, to the year of our Lord 361 — 
every reasonable demand for the testimony of ene- 
mies is fully met, and a gracious Providence has per- 
fected the external evidence for the authenticity 
of the New Testament ? 

We proceed to confirm the abounding proof, 
already adduced, by a brief reference to the lan- 
guage arid style of the New Testament. 

I. The language and style are in ijerfect accord- 
ance with the local and other circumstances of the 
reputed ivriters. They were Jews by birth ; Jews 
by education ; Jews by numerous and strong at- 
tachments ; Jews in all their associations of thought 
and feeling. Jews were, in great part, the persons 
to whom they wrote. Jewish prejudices, objec- 
tions, and peculiarities, were, to a great extent, 
the obstacles in their way. The religious and po- 
litical institutions of the Jewish nation, though per- 
fectly exterminated in a few years after they wrote, 
were in full establishment till after the death of 
all of them except St. John. Hence it is reasonably 

'^^ Doddaug-e. ia Lardnei, iv. 147. 



LECTURE III. 113, 

expected that Jewish peculiarities should be found 
frequently and broadly stamped upon any writings 
truly professing to have proceeded from their pens. 
Such, notoriously, is the case with the w^ritings of 
the New Testament. None but Jews could have 
composed them. None but Jews who lived before 
the destruction of their temple, and city, and polity, 
and nation, could have cast them in their present 
mould ; or marked them with all those indescriba- 
ble and inimitable touches of a Jewish hand, which 
their style and language every where exh ibit. The 
use of words and phrases which are known to 
have been peculiar to Judea in the times of the 
apostles ; the continual, familiar, and natural allu- 
sions to the ceremonies and temple service of the 
Jews, as then existing, and which soon passed 
away ; the universal prevalence of a mode of think- 
ing and of expression, which none but a Jew, 
brought up under the Old Testament, always ac- 
customed to think of religion through the types and 
shadows of the law, and reared amidst the usages, 
prejudices, associations, and errors of the Jewish 
people, as subsisting in the times of the apostles, 
could have introduced without awkwardness and 
obvious forgery ; all bear decided witness, not only 
that the writers of the New Testament were Jews 
originally, in every sense ; but that they must have 
formed their habits of thinking, feeling, and writing, 
before the destruction of the Jewish state ; in other 
words, before the fortieth year after the death of 
Christ. From that time, so entirely was every ves- 
15 



114 LECTURE 111, 

tige of the religion and polity of the Jews destroyed, 
that, except among those whose minds had been 
moulded under pre-existing circumstances, the 
writing of a book in the language and style, and 
abounding in the peculiarities of the New Testa- 
ment, would have been, at least, next to impossible. 
This conclusion will appear the more inevitable, 
when you consider the characteristic features by 
which the Greek of the New Testament is distin- 
guished. In the times of the apostles, Greek was 
almost a universal language. It was spread over 
all Palestine. The Jewish coast, on the Medi- 
terranean, was occupied by cities, either wholly, or 
half Greek. On the eastern border of the land, 
from the Arnon upwards, towards the north, the 
cities were Greek ; and, towards the south, in pos- 
session of the Greeks, Several cities of Judea and 
Galilee were either entirely, or, at least, half peo- 
pled by Greeks. " Being thus favoured on all sides, 
this language was spread, by means of traffic and 
intercourse, through all classes, so that the people 
(though with many exceptions), considered gene- 
rally, understood it, although they adhered more 
to their own language."* But the Greek, thus 
spoken in Palestine, was not like that of Attica, 
nor of the cities of Asia Minor ; but having become 
degenerated, in consequence of its associations with 
people whose native tongue was Hebrew, by means 

* Hug on the Greek laag-uuges in Palcsiinc. — Bib. Jicpositonj, 
Ao. ///. Andovor. 



LECTURE in. 115 

of Chaldee and Syriac intermixtures, into Western 
Aramean, it contained a large share of the idioms and 
other peculiarities belonging to this heterogeneous 
neighbour. Such was the language in which the 
apostles must have written. Now, if the hooks of the 
New Testament he their writings^ they must contain 
the characteristic features of that Palestine Greek. 
Such is most manifestly the case. These books 
are in Greek, but not pure and classic, such as a 
native and educated Grecian would have written ; 
but in Hehraic Greek; in a language mixed up 
with the words and idioms of that peculiar dialect 
of the Hebrew which constituted the vernacular 
tongue of the inhabitants of Judea and Galilee in 
the age of the apostles. Had it been otherwise ; 
were the language of the New Testament pure and 
classic ; then the writers must have been either na- 
tive and educated Grecians, or else Jews, of much 
more Attic cultivation than the apostles of Christ. 
In either case a suspicion would attach to the 
authenticity of our sacred books. Neither case 
being true, the evidence of authenticity is mate- 
rially confirmed. 

But we go further. The Greek of the New Tes- 
tament could not have been written by men who 
liad learned their language after the age of the 
apostles. This mingling of Grecian and Aramean, 
as it is preserved in the New Testament, ceased to 
be the familiar tongue of Christians in Palestine 
before the death of St. John. When Jerusalem, 
with the whole civil and religious polity of the 



116 LECTURE III. 

Jews, was, in the seventieth year of the christian 
era, entirely destroyed, and the descendants of 
Abraliam were rooted out of the land, and foreign- 
ers came in from all quarters to take their places ; 
the language of the country underwent such a 
change that, except with the scattered few who 
had survived the desolation of their country, the 
Greek of the New Testament was no more a living 
language. When St. John died, there w^as proba- 
bly not a man alive who could speak or write pre- 
cisely that tongue. In the second century, an 
attempt to compose a book in the name of the 
apostles, and in imitation of their Greek, would have 
been detected as easily as if a full bred French- 
man, never out of France, should attempt to com- 
pose a volume in a dialect of English, and endeavour 
to pass it off as the work of a plain, sensible, but 
unpolished Yorkshireman. Hence, while doubts 
were entertained for a while, in some parts of the 
church, as to the authenticity of some portions of 
the New Testament, it was never doubted whether 
they were written by men who had lived when the 
Greek of Palestine, as it had been in the apostolic 
age, was yet alive. 

II. The language and style of the A^cw Testament 
are in perfect harmony with the knoicn characters of 
the reputed writers. The apostles and evangelists 
were men of plain, sound understanding, but with- 
out any polish of education, and not likely to adorn 
their writings with much rhetorical dress. Paul, 
the only exception to this character, was well read 



LECTURE III. 117 

in Jewish, and, we have reason to believe, in Gre- 
cian literature. From other sources, besides the 
New Testament, we are informed of certain pecu- 
liarities of natural character, as having distin- 
guished some of those to whom the books of the 
New Testament are ascribed. John, for example, 
is always represented in ecclesiastical history as ha- 
ving been remarkable for meekness, and gentleness, 
and a manner and spirit full of mild affection. Paul, 
we always read of as characterized by prompt, 
energetic zeal and animated boldness. If the books 
bearing their names were written by those apostles, 
we must expect to find in them the distinctive stamp 
of their respective characters. So it is. In the 
historical books, none of icliich the educated Paul 
composed^ there is no ornament of style ; but mere- 
ly the simplicity, and directness, of plain, sensible 
men, honestly relating what they familiarly knew, 
and disregarding style in their intentness upon 
truth. In the Epistles of Paul, however, the 
case is entirely different. There we behold the 
style of a writer brought up in the schools, though 
obviously in the schools of Judea. Accustomed to 
writing and to argument, he reasons precisely as 
we should expect of Saul of Tarsus, after having 
been educated at the feet of Gamaliel, and arrested 
by divine power and grace on the road to Damascus, 
and made to " count all things but loss for the excel- 
lency of the knowledge of Christ." Every where in 
the epistles, bearing his name, are written the strong 
characters of the peculiar zeal and boldness, as 



118 



LECTURE III. 



well as education, that belonged to Paul ; while 
throughout the writings ascribed to John, there 
breathes the sweet spirit of gentleness and tender 
affection, so characteristic of " that disciple whom 
Jesus loved." Similar statements might be made 
with regard to other writers of the New Testament, 
in proportion as their peculiarities of temperament 
are known and conspicuous. 

From all that has now been said, it may easily 
be made to appear, that if the historical books of 
the New Testament, tlic Gospels and Acts of the 
Apostles, on which our subsequent argument will 
chiefly depend, be not authentic ; in plainer terms, 
if they be forgeries, nothing less titan a miracle 
can account for their early ajul universal currency. 
Remember that John lived to the end of the first 
century. It cannot be supposed that books, falsely 
pretending to have been written by those very evan- 
gelists, with whom he had been so intimately asso- 
ciated, and one of them professing to have been 
written by himself, could have gained a reputable 
currency in the churches while he lived. He cer- 
tainly knew what he and the other evangelists had 
published ; and no motive can be assigned that 
could have induced him to sufTer a forgery to pass 
unexposed. We conclude, therefore, that if these 
books be not authentic, they must have been 
palmed on the churches after the death of John ; 
that is, after the beginning of the second century. 
Su])pose we descend to the third. Can it be ima- 
gined that the deception was introduceil after this 



LECTURE III. 119 

century commenced? Impossible; since by this 
time, the boolis in question were read, every Lord's 
day, in all the churches ; quoted by writers of all 
countries; universally received as the oracles of 
God. If a deception w^as introduced at all, it 
was brought in somewhere between the death of 
John and the third century — somewhere in the 
course of the second. Now, to obtain a clearer 
view of the difficulties which such an attempt 
must have had to overcome, let it be supposed 
that during the present year, a volume containing 
a digest of laws, under the title of " Laws of the 
city of JVeiD Yorkj^^ should appear among us, pre- 
tending to be a code of municipal regulations, 
composed, about seventy years ago, by a few of the 
most distinguished inhabitants at that period; 
and to have been received by the citizens, and 
appealed to in their municipal courts ever since, 
as the book of the laws of this city; claiming, 
moreover, to be acknowledged and obeyed by 
the present generation as the very code inherited 
from their fathers. What would be its chance? 
A moral impossibility would prevent its success. 
Nothing but lunacy would undertake such a 
scheme. It would be enough for lawyers and 
judges and people to say : " It was never heard of 
before. It has never been known in our courts." 
But this is only a feeble illustration of the case 
before us. If the books in question were forged 
in the name of the evangelists, you must suppose, 
that at some period, within a hundred years of 



120 LECTURE III. 

St. John, while many were living who had either 
known him personally or conversed with those 
who did enjoy that privilege, a volume appeared 
among the churches, diflering widely from those 
books which, as works of the evangelists, they had 
received and read from the beginning, and yet de- 
manding to be considered as nothing more nor less 
than those very works. You must suppose the abet- 
tors of the imposition to have said to the various na- 
tions of Christians : " These are the genuine Gospels 
in which you were educated ; which your fathers 
died for ; which your persecutors endeavoured to 
destroy, and your martyrs laboured to save ; which 
have been daily read in. your families, expounded 
in your churches, quoted in your writings, and ap- 
pealed to in all your controversies with heretics 
and enemies." And yet it must be supposed that 
Christians, notwithstanding their notorious love 
for the writings of the evangelists, and their great 
care in preserving them, were so easily and univer- 
sally imposed on, as never to perceive that these 
fraudulent works, instead of having been ex- 
pounded and read and quoted and appealed to in 
all their churches, had never been heard of before. 
You have to suppose, moreover, that while Chris- 
tianity was surrounded on all sides and opposed at 
every step by keen sighted and determined enemies 
— Jews, on the one hand, with all their cunning — 
Greeks and Romans on the other, with all their 
skill and power, ever watching, accusing, and per- 
secuting — none of them ever pretended to the dis- 



LECTURE III. 121 

covery that these books, so fraudulently introduced, 
were not those which the apostles wrote and 
Christians had always read ; but all believed them 
to be the identical writings to which the churches 
had invariably referred as the law and the testimony. 
You must go still further, and suppose that not- 
withstanding the wide publicity which the genuine 
works of the apostles had obtained among the pri- 
mitive churches, so immediately did these spurious 
productions expel them from the notice and re- 
collection of all people, that no interval is known 
during which the question between the two con- 
flicting volumes was so much as even debated. In- 
stantly, (you must suppose), that the spurious were 
treated every where with the reverence belonging 
to inspired books ; that though divers sects of here- 
sies were starting up in various parts, all recognized 
their authority that the churches of Rome, Corinth, 
Ephesus, Colosse, Philippi, Galatia, and Thessalo- 
nica, all believed that these several epistles, falsely 
pretending to have come to them from St. Paul, 
were those very ones, the autographs of which 
were then in their possession, and copies of which 
they had been continually reading in public from 
the time the originals were received from the apostle. 
Lastly, it must be supposed, that so perfect was the 
forgery, that although every weapon and artifice 
that wit, and learning, and power, could contrive, 
has been employed, during eighteen hundred years, 
for the single purpose of undermining the founda- 
tions of Christianity, no labourer in the cause has 
16 



122 LECTURE III. 

yet succeeded in picking a flaw in the authenticity 
of its books. He that can digest all this for the pur- 
pose of maintaining that our sacred writings are 
not authentic, can swallow the most abject ab- 
surdity. He supposes an endless succession of mi- 
racles wrought upon innumerable minds for the 
promotion of imposture. He believes the laws of 
nature to have been continually violated, under the 
government of a holy God, to countenance un- 
righteousness. In sustaining this belief, he must 
adopt a principle with regard to miracles, the bold- 
ness and novelty of which, even Hume would have 
been jealous of. He was so modest as only to 
maintain that no testimony can "prove a miracle. 
Here, however, the sceptic must maintain that the 
most absurd miracle can be proved, not only with- 
out any testimony, but against all testimony. 

Enough has now been said to enable you to 
judge whether the learning, or the honesty of the 
miserable Paine is most to be admired, when he 
says : " Those who are not much acquainted with 
ecclesiastical history, may suppose that the book 
called the New Testament has existed ever since 
the time of Jesus Christ ; but the fact is historically 
otherwise. T/icre loas no such book as the JVeio 
Testament till more than three hundred year's after 
the time that Christ is said to have lived.^^ Whether 
we ought to save this poor sceptic from the charge 
of a gross and deliberate falsehood, by imputing to 
him disgraceful ignorance, I leave you to decide. 



LECTURE III. 123 

And now, having maintained our cause, permit 
me to say, that in argument with unbelievers, we 
cannot, in justice, be required to present any of the 
evidence to wliich you have been listening. The 
whole burden of proof lies with the objector. 
Should the authenticity of Paradise Lost be called 
in question, no believer in its Miltonian origin 
would feel himself called upon to prove it. We 
should wait in calmness, till the sceptic had sus- 
tained his objection. The book has lived long 
enough with a fair reputation to be considered 
authentic, till proved to be spurious. So would 
common justice warrant us in saying with regard 
to the New Testament. Eighteen centuries of high 
and holy reputation are enough to sustain its au- 
thenticity, till sceptics, besides pronouncing, shall 
prove it a forgery. Let the objector be kind enough 
to state the proof of its spuriousness ; let him show 
the deficiencies in its evidence ; let him establish 
objections to its legitimacy, which all the enemies 
that surrounded its birth were unable to venture ; 
then will it be time for friends to stand on the de- 
fensive, and prove its apostolic parentage. But 
this we know not that any opposer of Christianity 
ever pretended to have done. Hoio these books 
were forced upon the world ; when Christians were 
so asleep as not to perceive that they were not the 
books which they had always been reading, and 
consulting, and expounding, and loving, and suffer- 
ing for; when the enemies of Christians were so 
miraculously blinded and the den of lions, in 



124 LECTURE III. 

which the church for so many centuries existed, 
was so miraculously hushed and overruled, that 
such an imposture could gain admission, and dwell 
in universal quietness, without so much as one 
paw to pounce on the prey, or one vigilant foe to 
discover its existence — lohat is the evidence that 
such an event ever took place ; I never heard of 
a human being undertaking to show. You might 
as well pretend to prove that the Declaration of 
Independence, cuxulated in numberless copies 
through the country, is not authentic ; that our re- 
volutionary fathers published no such document, 
or else that ours is not the declaration which they 
published. The adversaries of Christianity are wary. 
It would require learning, and time, and talents, to 
make even a plausible show of strength, in conflict 
with the testimony to the authenticity of the New 
Testament ; but it takes no time, requires no talent, 
or knowledge, for such persons to insinuate that 
its books are forgeries — to put out a loise suspicion 
that they were not written by the original disci- 
ples. No argument can refute a sneer, nor any 
human skill prevent its mischief They know that 
many a mind will catch the plague of infidelity by 
the touch of their insinuation, without ever find- 
ing, or caring to seek, the antidote. Any body can 
soil the repute of an individual, however pure and 
chaste, by uttering a suspicion, which his enemies 
will believe, and his friends never hear of A puff 
of idle wind can take up a million of the seeds of 
the thistle, and do a Avork of mischief which the 



LECTURE III. 125 

husbandman must labour long and hard to undo ; 
the floating particles being too trifling to be seen, 
and too light to be stopped. Such are the seeds of 
infidelity — so ,easily sown — so difiicult to be ga- 
thered up, and yet so pernicious in their fruits. It 
is the work of God, much more than of man, that 
they do not spread more rapidly and widely. The 
hand of Divine Providence interposes to arrest it, 
where the regular array of human reasoning would 
have no room to use its strength. 

Here we should leave the subject, were it not 
that one question of importance remains to be an- 
swered. How do we know that the New Testa- 
ment has preserved its integrity ? While it appears 
so conclusively that our present books are verily 
those which the evangelists and apostles wrote, and 
the primitive churches loved and read ; how does 
it appear that they have undergone no material 
alteration since those times ? On this head, the 
answer is complete. 

We may reason from the perfect impossibility of 
any material alteration. The scriptures, as soon as 
written, were published. Christians eagerly sought 
for them ; copies were multiplied ; carried into dis- 
tant countries ; esteemed a sacred treasure, for 
which disciples were willing to die. They were 
daily read in families, and expounded in churches ; 
writers quoted them ; enemies attacked them ; he- 
retics endeavoured to elude their decisions ; and 
the orthodox were vigilant, lest the former, in their 
efforts to escape the interpretation, should change 



126 LECTURE III. 

the text. In a short time, copies were scattered 
over the whole inhabited portion of the earth. Ver- 
sions were made into different languages. Harmo- 
nies, and collations, and commentaries, and cata- 
logues, were carefully made and published. Thus 
universal notoriety, among friends and enemies, 
was given to every book. How, in such circum- 
stances, could material alterations be made with- 
out exposure ? If made in one copy, they must 
have been made universally; or else some unaltered 
copies would have descended to us, or would have 
been taken notice of and quoted in ecclesiastical 
history, and the writings of ancient times. If made 
universally, the work must have been done either 
by /nentZs, or by heretics^ or by open enemies. Is it 
supposable that oiien enemies^ unnoticed by Chris- 
tians, could have altered all or a hundreth part of 
the copies, when they were so continually read, 
and so affectionately protected 7 Could the sects 
of heretics have done such a work, when they were 
ever watching one another as jealously, as all their 
doings were continually watched by the churches ? 
Could true Christians have accomplished such a 
task, even if any motive could have led them to 
desire it, while heretics on one hand, and innume- 
rable enemies on the other, were always awake 
and watchful, with the scriptures in their hands, to 
lay hold of the least pretext against the defenders 
of the faith ? It was at least as unlikely that ma- 
terial alterations in the New Testament should 
pass unnoticed and become universal, in the early 



LECTURE III. 127 

centuries and in all succeeding ones, as that an 
important change in a copy of the constitution of 
the United States should creep into all the copies 
scattered over the country, and be handed down 
as part of the original document, unnoticed by the 
various parties and jealousies by which that in- 
strument is so closely watched, and so constantly 
referred to. Such was the precise assertion of a 
writer of the fourth century, on this very subject. 
" The integrity (says Augustine) of the books of 
any one bishop, however eminent, cannot be so 
completely kept as that of the canonical scripture, 
translated into so many languages, and kept by the 
people of every age ; and yet some there have been, 
who have forged writings with the names of apos- 
tles. In vain, indeed, because that scripture has 
been so esteemed, so celebrated, so known."* Rea- 
soning with a heretic, he says : " If any one should 
charge you with having interpolated some texts 
alleged by you, would you not immediately an- 
swer that it is impossible for you to do such a 
thing in books read by all Christians ? And that 
if any such attempt had been made by you, it 
would have been presently discerned and defeated 
by comparing the ancient copies ? Well, then, for 
the same reason that the scriptures cannot be cor- 
rupted by you, neither could they be corrupted by 
any other people."! 

The agreement among the existing manuscriiots 
of the New Testament, proves that this holy.vo- 

* Lardner, ii. 594. j lb., ii. 228. 



128 LECTURE III. 

lume has not been corrupted. Of no ancient classic 
are the extant manuscripts so numerous, as those of 
the New Testament. Griesbach, in making his edi- 
tion, collated more than three hundred and fifty. 
These were written in different ages and countries. 
Some of them are as old as the fourth or fifth cen- 
tury. Some contain all, others only particular 
books or parts of books of the New Testament. 
Several contain detached portions or lessons, as ap- 
pointed to be read on certain occasions in the 
churches. In none of them have we any thing dif- 
fering in essential points from the text at present 
received. It is true, and it sounds to uninformed 
ears quite alarming, that in the manuscripts col- 
lated for Griesbach's edition of the New Testa- 
ment, as many as one hundred and fifty thousand 
various readings are said to have been found. But 
all alarm will seem gratuitous when it is known 
that not one in a thousand of these various read- 
ings makes any perceptible, or at most any impor- 
tant variation of meaning; that they consist al- 
most entirely in manifest mistakes of transcribers, 
such as the omission or transposition of letters, er- 
rors in pointing, in grammar, in the use of certain 
words instead of others of similar meaning, and in 
changing the position of words in a sentence. The 
very worst manuscript, were it our only copy of 
the New Testament, would not pervert one chris- 
tian doctrine or precept. By all the omissions and 
all the additions contained in all the manuscripts, no 
fact, no doctrine, no duty, presented in our authorized 



LECTURE III. 129 

version, is rendered either obscure or doubtful. The 
diversity of readings is ample proof that our pre- 
sent manuscripts were made from various copies in 
ancient times ; while the inconsiderable importance 
of this diversity of readings shows how nearly 
those copies conformed to the original scriptures, 
and how little difference would be seen be- 
tween our present New Testament and the au- 
tographs of its writers, could they be now collated. 
No ancient book has preserved its text so uncor- 
rupt as those of the New Testament. None is at- 
tended with so many means of detecting an inac- 
curate reading. A common reader, could he com- 
pare the various manuscripts, would be sensible of 
no more difference among them than among the se- 
veral copies of his English Bible, which have been 
printed during the last two hundred years. 

The uncorrupt preservation of the text of the 
New Testament is also evident from its agreement 
with the numerous quotations in the roorks of early 
christian ivriters, and icith those ancient translations 
ivhich are iioio extant. In the remaining books of 
the fathers of the first three centuries, quotations 
from the New Testament are so abundant, that al- 
most the whole of the sacred text could be ga- 
thered from those sources. Excepting some six or 
seven verses, the genuineness of which is not per- 
fectly settled, there is an exact agreement, in all 
material respects, between those quotations and the 
corresponding parts of our New Testament. The 
same confirmation, though still more satisfactory, 
17 



130 LECTURE III. 

is derived from ancient versions. We possess, in 
various languages, versions of the New Testament, 
reaching as far back as the early part of the se- 
cond century. The Mseso Gothic version, disco- 
vered by Mai in 1817, and made by Ulphilas, bishop 
of the Mseso Goths, in the year 370, of which only 
fragments were possessed before, has the same text 
as ours. The old Syriac version, called Peshito, is 
considered by some of the best Syriac scholars to 
have been made before the close of the first cen- 
tury. It was certainly in existence and general 
use before the close of the second. Though never 
brought into contact with our copies of the New 
Testament, because not known in Europe till the 
sixteenth century ; though handed down by a line 
of tradition perfectly independent of, and imknown 
to, that by which our Greek Testament was re- 
ceived ; yet, when the two came to be compared, 
the text of the one was almost an exact version of 
the text of the other. The difference was alto- 
gether unimportant. So clearly and impressively 
has Divine Providence attested the integrity of our 
beloved scriptures. 

It is now high time we had relieved your atten- 
tion. You Avill allow me to proceed, in the subse- 
quent lectures, on the belief that the authenticity 
and integrity of the New Testament have been sa- 
tisfactorily proved. But let us not separate without 
acknowledging, in thankfulness of heart, our debt 
of gratitude to llini who, on a subject of such un- 
speakable importance, has given us such abundant 



LECTURE III. 131 

reason for complete conviction. He has made the 
great truth, for which we have been contending, 
like '^ the round worlds so sure that it cannot be 
moved J^ 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE IV 



CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY. 



In the last two lectures our attention was occu- 
pied with the authenticity and integrity of the 
New Testament, A body of proof was presented, 
of such variety and conclusiveness, as should cause 
us to feel that, in taking these important points for 
granted in our subsequent course, we assume no- 
thing which every candid mind should not acknow- 
ledge to have been satisfactorily established. You 
will allow me, therefore, to treat the books of the 
New Testament as needing no further argument to 
prove that they were written in the age to which 
they are ascribed, and by the authors whose names 
they bear. 



134 LECTURE IV. 

But it should be remembered, that a book may 
be authentic^ and yet not credible. It may have 
been written indeed by the reputed author, and yet 
its narrative may not be worthy of confidence. 
This, I say, is a possible case. Examples illustra- 
ting it are not numerous. So generally do authen- 
tic histories prove to be true, that when we have 
ascertained a book to have been composed by the 
individual whose name is on it, we have a strong 
presumptive argument for the truth of all the con- 
spicuous and important features in its narrative. 
But inasmuch as these two things are not always 
associated, an important question remains to be 
determined, before we can open the New Testa- 
ment as the hook of the life and religion of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and worthy of entire reliance, 
as an account of what was done and taught by 
himself and his apostles. Does the New Testament 
contain a true history of events connected with the 
ministry of Jesus and his primitive disciples, so that 
we may receive as historically accurate whatever 
is related therein 7 This refers to what is usually 
called the credibility of the gospel history^ and ex- 
presses the subject of our present lecture. 

But lest the bearing of my remarks should not 
be distinctly understood, I will endeavour to state 
the subject still more precisely. Observe then ; it 
is not the inspiration of the gospel history, or that 
it was written by holy men as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost, that we shall seek to prove tliis 
evening; nor that it contains a revelation from 



LECTURE IV, 135 

God ; nor that its doctrines are true ; nor that any 
of its facts were miraculous; these are subjects 
which it would be premature to introduce at pre- 
sent. All at which we now aim, is to furnish con- 
clusive evidence that the gospel history is true^ in 
the same sense as Marshall's Life of Washington 
is true — that what it relates, as matter of fact, is 
worthy of entire reliance as matter of fact, inde- 
pendently of all inferences or doctrines with which 
it may be connected. 

Hoio do ice prove the credibility of the gospel his- 
tory 7 I answer : precisely as you would ascertain 
the credibility of any other history. Though, as in 
the case of authenticity, we are ready to produce a 
variety and an abundance of evidence, far exceed- 
ing what the best established and the most unques- 
tionable books of ancient profane history can pre- 
tend to, still the nature of the evidence is the same 
in one case as the other. The fact that one his- 
tory is called sacred, and the other profane ; that 
in one book, the actions of a holy and extraordi- 
nary philanthropist, named Jesus, are related ; and 
in another the actions of a wicked and extraordi- 
nary man-slayer, named Caesar, are related; occa- 
sions not the least difference in the nature of the 
evidence by which the credibility of both must be 
ascertained. 

Here it would be perfectly safe and reasonable to 
rest the question of credibility upon the proof arrived 
at in the last lecture. Although it does not follow, 
in all cases, that to prove a book authentic, is to 



136 LECTURE IV. 

prove it credible also, with regard to its principal 
events, yet in the case before us, the fact that the 
books of the New Testament were written in the 
first century of Christianity, and by the apostles and 
original disciples of Christ, is complete evidence 
that, in respect to the main events of the gospel his- 
tory, they are true. If one should write a romance, 
calling it the memoir of some well known and dis- 
tinguished personage, and publish it, not as grave, 
credible biography, but under the character of a 
novel, the authenticity of the work would have no 
connection with its truth. But should he issue a 
book professing to be the true biography of Wash- 
ington ; should he vouch in every w^ay for its truth, 
and stake his reputation upon its accuracy, in the 
midst of a generation familiar with the life of that 
noble man, and still containing some who were 
his companions and the eyewitnesses of many of 
his deeds, it would be reasonably inferred that, 
unless the author were an idiot or a madman, his 
work must be correct, at least, in the great mass of 
its statements and in all its conspicuous events. 
He must be aware that, under such circumstances, 
no important narrative without truth could escape 
detection. The fact, therefore, that he has pub- 
lished, in the midst of this generation, what he ex- 
pects to be received as a correct biography of 
Washington, is sufficient warrant that, however 
inaccurate it may be in minute details, and how- 
ever deficient in many respects of good writing and 
useful history, we may safely receive its principal 



LECTURE IV. 137 

narratives. Such a thing cannot be produced as a 
book published in the age in which its events are said 
to have occurred, and among the people to whose 
minds those events are said to have been familiar ; 
a book which its author gravely avowed, and de- 
fended, as true and accurate ; and yet in its prin- 
cipal narratives, in its prominent characters and 
occurrences, was not in accordance with fact. 
Men have too much sense, if not too much honesty, 
to attempt such a Quixotic adventure ; especially 
when character and worldly interests are commit- 
ted by the falsehood. But there is no book, to 
which this remark is so applicable as the New 
Testament. Not only was it published in the age 
in which the events related are asserted to have 
occurred, and among the people to whom they are 
said to have been notorious; but in an age and 
among a people awake to the whole subject of its 
history; determined to sift its correctness to the 
uttermost; capable of the severest scrutiny, and 
anxious to take advantage of the smallest inaccu- 
racy. This the writers were perfectly aware of. 
They must have known that in the brevity of the 
history ; in the fewness of its principal facts ; in the 
great prominence and notoriety of each ; in the few 
persons to whom they belong, as their leading 
agents ; in the few places and the confined region 
in which they are said to have occurred ; and in 
the brief space of time within which they were all 
embraced ; their adversaries possessed advantages 
for investigation which nothing but bold and plain 
18 



138 



LECTURE IV. 



truth could confront, and no fiction could possibly 
elude. That, in the face of all these advantages, 
they did publish, and stake their characters and 
lives upon the correctness of their narratives, is a 
full warrant that they published truth. This ar- 
gument can only be escaped by charging the wri- 
ters of the New Testament with a degree of idiocy 
or madness, which the eminent wisdom and excel- 
lence of their w^orks proves to have been impossible. 
I venture to say, that should the same argument 
be alleged with equal force in behalf of any other 
ancient book of history, its credibility, as to the 
main events related would be considered, inde- 
pendently of any other evidence, as placed beyond 
a reasonable suspicion. 

Here, then, we might proceed to open the New 
Testament as a book of correct narrative ; certified 
that, because authentic^ it is therefore, as to all im- 
portant matters of fact, credible. But we are not 
restricted to a single method of proof. The subject 
is compassed about with a cloud of witnesses. We 
take up another and broader plan of argument, the 
force of which none can mistake. 

Let me ask by what sort of evidence you would 
feel assured of the credibility of any history, pro- 
fessing to relate events of a passed age 7 Suppose 
you should discover a volume hitherto concealed, 
professing to have been written by some well 
known individual of the Augustan age, and to con- 
tain a narrative of events in the personal history 
and domestic life of Augustus Caesar. You would 



LECTURE IV. 139 

first examine into its authenticity. That settled, 
you would inquire into the credibility of its narra- 
tive. The first question v^ould be, did the writer 
possess every advantage of knowing the events in 
the personal history of Augustus ? May I depend 
on the sufficiency of his knowledge 1 Now he may 
not have lived with Augustus, and yet his know- 
ledge may have been perfectly adequate. But 
your mind would be fully satisfied on this head, 
should it appear that the writer was not only a 
contemporary, but that he was domesticated with 
Augustus ; conversed familiarly with him, lived at 
his table, assisted at his councils, accompanied 
him on his journeys. 

The question of adequate knowledge being thus 
at rest, another would remain — May I depend on 
the honesty of the writer ? In ordinary cases, you 
would be satisfied if nothing appeared in the book 
itself, or in the testimony of contemporaneous wri- 
tings, impeaching his honesty. But your satisfac- 
tion would be much increased should you discover, 
in the style and spirit of the narrative, in its sim- 
plicity, modesty, and freedom of manner, in the 
circumstantial character of its details and the fre- 
quency of its allusions to time, place, and persons, 
those internal features of honesty, which it is so 
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to counterfeit. 
Your confidence would grow exceedingly if, on a 
comparison of the book with other well established 
histories of the same times, you should discover, 
not only that there is no contradiction in any par- 



140 LECTURE IV. 

ticular, but that all its allusions to the customs, 
institutions, prejudices, and political events of the 
times, are abundantly confirmed from other sources. 
This would set the honesty of the writer in a very 
favourable light. 

But suppose that, at this stage, you should disco- 
ver three other books, upon the same subject ; each 
evidently written by a person in the family and 
confidence of Augustus, or else with equally fa- 
vourable opportunities of knowing him ; each evi- 
dently an independent work, and having all the 
Inward and outward marks of truth before de- 
tailed. Suppose, that on comparing these four his- 
tories together, you find that, while each contains 
some minor facts which the others do not, and relates, 
what all contain in common, in its own style and 
language, there is no disagreement among them ; but 
on the contrary, the most perfect confirmation, one 
of another. Surely, after this, no further evidence 
could be demanded of the veracity of all those his- 
torians. But still, though you would have no right 
to require, you might perhaps discover additional 
evidence. You might search collateral history for 
the private characters of those writers ; and how 
would it heighten your satisfaction to find that 
universally they were esteemed beyond reproach, 
even by their personal opponents. You might also 
inquire what motive they could have had for de- 
ception ; and how conclusive would it seem in their 
favour to discover that, so far from any suspicion 
of such a motive attaching to them, they had un- 



LECTURE IV. 141 

dertaken to publish what they did, with the cer- 
tainty of sacrificing every thing earthly, and ac- 
tually plunged themselves by it into poverty, con- 
tempt, and suffering. One can hardly imagine 
stronger evidence of truth. None could, with any 
reason, require it. 

But yet there might be additional evidence. 
These historians, perhaps, had many and bitter 
personal adversaries: How did they treat their 
books'? The books were published during the 
lifetime of many who had seen Augustus, and 
had witnessed the principal events described ; they 
were published in the very places where those 
events took place, and in the midst of thousands 
who knew all about them. How, then, did their 
enemies treat these histories'? Now, should you 
discover that the personal adversaries of these 
four writers, however disposed, were unable to 
deny, but on the contrary acknowledged, assumed, 
and reasoned upon their narratives as true ; and 
furthermore, that the thousands who had witnessed 
the principal events recorded, never contradicted 
those narratives, but in numerous instances af- 
forded all the confirmation they were capable of; 
I am sure you would think the whole evidence for 
the credibility of those four histories, not only con- 
clusive, but singularly and wonderfully so. 

I have thus sketched a mass of evidence, and a 
variety of adequate evidence, which, were the half of 
it required for any book of ancient history but the 
Bible, would bring its credibility into utter con- 



142 



LECTURE IV. 



demnation. If a book, with all this in its favour, 
ought not to be believed, historical truth, or the 
possibility of ascertaining it, must be given up. 
But who would think of resisting such evidence ? 
What would be thought of the intellect, not to 
speak of the candour of the man, who, with all 
this before him, should take up the memoirs of the 
life of Augustus Csesar, as above supposed, and not 
feel that it were the absurdest folly to question the 
accuracy of their statements 7 In laying out this 
sketch, I have exhibited a general view of the evi- 
dence for the credibility of the gospel history. In 
proceeding, now, to more particular details, I hope 
to show you that every branch of the evidence I 
have glanced at, however vain to seek it in favour of 
any other ancient history, can be cited in attesta- 
tion of the credibility of that in the New Testa- 
ment. 

From the brief view we have taken of the evi- 
dence which may be brought for the credibility of 
any historical document, it appears that the great 
points to be made out in favour of the writer are 
these two — comintent knoidcdgc and trustwortliy 
lionesty. Did he know enough to write a true ac- 
count? and then, was he honest enough to be una- 
ble to write any other than a true account? Es- 
tablish these, and the book is established — the ques- 
tion is closed. Let us take this plan as to the his- 
tory before us. We have several independent wri- 
tings containing the gospel history. Let us select 



LECTURE IV. 143 

that of St. John, and try the question first upon it. 
We begin, then, with this most important inquiry : 
I. Had the writer of this book sufficient opportu- 
nities of possessing adequate knowledge as to such mat- 
ters of fact which he has related 7 I do not suppose 
that much array of argument can be necessary to 
prove that he had every opportunity. It is to be 
first considered that the amount of knowledge re- 
quired to enable John, or either of the other evan- 
gelists, to give an accurate account of so much of 
the life of Christ and of the transactions connected 
with his cause, as he has embraced in his narrative, 
was not very considerable. The gospel history is 
contained in a small space. Twenty-nine or thirty 
pages, of a common family Bible, comprise the 
whole of what John has related. It is a plain 
straight forward account of a very simple intelligi- 
ble train of events. There are no labyrinths of 
historical truth to trace out — no perplexed involu- 
tions of circumstances to unravel. Consequently, 
when you consider that John, by the testimony of 
all tradition, as well as that of the gospel history, 
was a member of the household of Christ — admit- 
ted into his most unreserved and affectionate inter- 
course — the disciple whom he specially loved — 
who accompanied him in all his journeyings, fol- 
lowed him into his retirements, stood beneath his 
cross, and was a constant companion of the other 
disciples and a witness of their actions — you will 
readily grant that John must have possessed all de- 
sirable opportunities of knowing, and must actually 



144 LECTURE IV. 

have known the gospel history so perfectly as to be 
fully competent to vv^rite an accurate account I 
shall therefore refrain from any further remarks 
upon this branch of the argument, and shall pass 
to the second, in entire confidence that I leave no 
mind in any reasonable doubt of the adequateness 
of our historia7i^s knoicledge. 

The second and the main question to be pur- 
sued is this : Have we reason to rely with implicit 
confidence upon the honesty of this historian? 
Believing him to have known enough to relate the 
truth, may we also believe that he was too honest 
to relate any thing but the truth 7 This is a fair 
and plain question. Prove the negative, and John's 
history must be given up. Prove the afiirmative, 
and it " is worthy of all acceptation." We begin 
the argument for the affirmative. 

II. There is abundant evidence that the writers of 
the gospel history ivere too honest to relate any thing 
but truth. 

We will apply, in the first place, to the history 
itself There are certain characteristic marks of 
historical honesty, which can hardly be counter- 
feited to any extent, and always produce a favoura- 
ble impression. Take up the history written by 
St. John. I call your attention to the obvious fact 
that ; 

1st. Its narrative is in a very high degree cir- 
cumstantial. A false witness will not need to be 
cautioned against the introduction of many minute 
circumstances into his statement. The more he 



LECTURE IV. 145 

connects it with the particulars of time, and place, 
and persons, so as to locate his facts and bring in 
living men as associated w^ith them, the more does 
he multiply the probability of detection. He gives 
the cross-examination every advantage. It w^ould 
be impossible for a false statement, abounding in 
such details, and at the same time exciting gene- 
ral interest in the neighbourhood where, and soon 
after, they are alleged to have occurred, to es- 
cape exposure. Consequently, when we take up 
a narrative thus minutely circumstantial, and 
which we are sure did excite among all classes, 
where its events are located, the very highest and 
most scrutinizing interest, and that, too, within a 
short time after the period to which the events 
are referred; we always feel impressed with a 
strong persuasion that the writer had the con- 
sciousness of truth and the fearlessness of honesty. 
It is evident that he had no disposition, and there- 
fore no cause, to shun the closest investigation. 
On the other hand, if you take up any books pro- 
fessing to be histories of events within the reach 
and investigation of those among whom they were 
first published, but yet in a great measure untrue, 
you will find a great deficiency of such minute de- 
tails of time, place, and persons, as would serve to 
test their faithfulness. Compare them with the 
histories of the Peloponnesian and Gallic wars, by 
Thucydides and Julius Csesar, and you will see 
directly how strong a feature of true narrative, in 
distinction from whatever is in a great degree in- 
19 



146 LECTURE IV. 

vented, is a circumstantial detail of minute parti- 
culars. 

Generality is the cloak of fiction. Minuteness 
is the natural manner of truth, in proportion to the 
importance and interest of the subject. Such is 
the precise manner and continual evidence of the 
honesty of St. John. His history is full of the 
most minute circumstances of time, place, and per- 
sons. Does he record, for example, the resuscita- 
tion of Lazarus 7 He tells the name of the village, 
and describes the particular spot where the event 
occurred. He gives the names of some of the 
principal individuals who were present ; mentions 
many unbelieving Jews as eye-witnesses ; states 
the precise object for which they had come to the 
place ; what they did and said ; the time the body 
had been buried; how the sepulchre was con- 
structed and closed; the impression which the 
event made upon the Jews ; how they were divided 
in opinion in consequence of it ; the particular ex- 
pressions of one whose name is given ; the subse- 
quent conduct of the Jews in regard to Lazarus. 
This, you perceive, is being A^ery circumstantial. 
It is only a specimen of the general character of 
St. John's Gospel. It looks very much as if the 
writer was not afraid of any thing the people of 
Bethany, or the survivors of those who had been 
present at the tomb of Lazarus, or the children of 
any of them, might have to say with regard to the 
resurrection. Now, when you consider that John's 
history was widely circidated while many were 



LECTURE IV. 147 

yet living, who, had these events never been, in Be- 
thany, must have known it; and among a people, 
who, in addition to every facility, had every desire 
to find out the least departure from truth, I think 
you will acknowledge that the circumstantial cha- 
racter of this book is very strong evidence that the 
author must have written in the confidence of truth. 
2d. Another striking evidence, to the same point, 
is seen in this, that the author exhibits no con- 
sciousness of narrating any thing, about which, as 
a matter of notorious fact, there was the smallest 
doubt. He takes no pains, evinces no thought of 
attempting, to convince his reader of the truth of 
what he relates. On the contrary, the whole nar- 
rative is conducted with the manner and aspect of 
one who takes for granted the entire notoriety of 
his statements. He comes before the public as one 
familiarly known, needing no account of himself or 
of his pretensions to universal confidence. He goes 
straight forward with his story, delivering the least 
and the most wonderful relations in the same sim- 
ple and unembarrassed manner of ease and confi- 
dence, which nothing but an assurance of unim- 
peachable consistency can explain. Nothing is 
said to account for what might seem inexplicable ; 
to defend what would probably be cavilled at ; to 
anticipate objections which one, feeling himself on 
questionable ground, would naturally look for. 
The writer seems to be conscious that, with regard 
to those for whom especially he wrote, all this were 
needless. He is willing to commit his simple state- 



148 LECTURE IV. 

ment alone, undefended, unvarnished, into the hands 
of friend or foe. 

Nothing is more remarkable in this connexion 
than that, while he could not have been ignorant 
that he was relating many very extraordinary and 
wonderful events, he shows no wonder in his own 
mind, and seems to expect no wonder among his 
readers. This looks exceedingly like one who 
writes, not of extraordinary events, just contrived 
in his own imagination, but of extraordinary events 
which, whatever the wonder they excited when 
first known, are now perfectly notorious, not only 
to himself, but to all his readers. It is one thing 
to relate a series of astonishing occurrences which 
we feel are perfectly new to the readers, and a 
very different thing to relate the same to those who 
have long since been familiarly acquainted with 
their prominent particulars, and desire only a more 
circumstantial and confidential account. In the 
former case, the writer would naturally, and almost 
necessarily, betray in his style and the whole tex- 
ture of his statement an expectation of the wonder 
and probable incredulity of his readers. In the 
latter, he would deliver his narrative as if he were 
thinking only of an accurate detail of truth, with- 
out particular reference to whether it was astonish- 
ing, or the contrary, Tims it is with St. John. 
There is no appearance of his having felt as if any 
of his Gospel would be new, or excite any new- 
emotions of wonder in his readers. The marvellous 
works of Christ were, at that time, notorious. 



LECTURE IV, 149 

When first heard of, they excited universal asto- 
nishment. " His fame went abroad, and all the 
people were amazed." But so much time had now 
elapsed, that emotions of wonder had subsided, 
under the influence of repetition and familiarity. 
In striking consistency with this is the whole aspect 
of St, John's narrative. He goes directly forward 
in the relation of events, in themselves exceedingly 
impressive and astonishing, exhibiting no sign of 
any astonishment in his own mind, anticipating 
none in his contemporaneous readers. How is this 
to be explained !■ One can discover no plausible 
explanation but in the supposition that he was con- 
scious of recording events, with which, in their chief 
particulars, the public mind had been entirely fa- 
miliarized. This may deservedly be considered a 
strong indication of truth. 

3d, I see another plain evidence, to the same 
point, in the minute accuracy ichich marks all the 
allusions of this narrative to the manners^ customs, 
ojnnions, political events, and other circumstances of 
the times. The situation of Judea, in the time of 
the Saviour, was such as to bring it frequently 
under the eye of the profane writers of that age. 
From them we derive a great many particulars, 
illustrating the several modifications in the civil 
and religious institutions of the Jews, by their sub- 
jection to Rome. And thus we have a great many 
points of comparison between the gospel history 
and the other histories of the same times. The for- 
mer contains innumerable references to the pecu- 



150 LECTURE IV, 

liarities then existing in the Jewish state — its laws, 
courts, punishments — as well as to the opinions, 
prejudices, and customs, then prevailing. This 
was dangerous ground for the inventor of a story. 
The continual fluctuations in public affairs; the 
numerous and complex changes in the supreme 
officers of Judea and the neighbouring provinces ; 
as well as in the boundaries and character of their 
governments, within the period embraced in the 
gospel history, must have added greatly to the diffi- 
culty of an inventor of a narrative located in such 
circumstances, and filled with allusions to them. 
We have a Jewish historian of the same age, with 
which to confront the gospel history, Josephus 
has furnished us with a full and minute account 
of those internal aiflfairs of the Jews, both civil 
and religious, to which allusions are made in 
the gospel history. It would be evidently very far 
beyond the limits of a lecture, to attempt a proof 
that all the minutest allusions in our sacred history 
are not only uncontradicted, but wherever the same 
things are spoken of, are positively confirmed by 
the secular authority to which we have referred. 
But we assert it as a fact, well known to every 
student of the gospel history, and of which any 
who have the disposition to examine the question, 
may easily be satisfied. Now it seems to me it 
would have been next to impossible for the inventor 
of a story, exciting such general and intense inter- 
est, branching out into such circumstantial details, 
and connected, at so many points, with the pecn- 



LECTURE IV. 151 

liarities of the timeSj to tread upon ground so co- 
vered with snares, without being caught. 

4th. Hitherto we have directed your attention 
to the gospel history as furnished by only one of 
its witnesses. But suppose you should unexpect- 
edly discover in the ruins of Herculaneum three 
distinct writings, heretofore entirely unknown, but 
containing the most satisfactoy evidence of authen- 
ticity, and evidently written in the first century of 
Christianity, by three several and independent au- 
thors, each possessed of the best opportunities of 
knowledge. And suppose that in every one of 
them there should be found a history of Christ and 
his Gospel ; what an uncommon opportunity would 
it seem of trying the accuracy of this book of St. 
John. Even if these three newly discovered au- 
thors were bad men ; yet if their statements should 
agree with his, it would determine the accuracy of 
his history. Bat jf it should appear that they were 
all good men, how much more complete would be 
their confirmation. Suppose, however, it should 
turn out that these three writers were not only 
good men, but, like St. John, disciples of Christ and 
ministers of his Gospel, what effect would their 
concurrent testimony then have upon his accuracy 1 
Would it be diminished in conclusiveness by the 
discovery of their christian character 7 I believe 
that, in the minds of multitudes, it would ; but 
most unjustly. Precisely the contrary should be 
the consequence. If four of the chief officers in 
Napoleon's staff" had published memoirs of his life, 



152 LECTURE IV. 

I venture to say that the concurrence of theu- se- 
veral statements, instead of having its evidence 
weakened, because they were all attached to Na- 
poleon and admitted to his domestic circle, would 
be greatly strengthened, in your estimation, by that 
very circumstance, inasmuch as it would ensure 
the accuracy of their knowledge, without impeach- 
ing their integrity. But some seem to suppose that 
the laws regulating the force of testimony are all 
changed as soon as the matter of fact, in question, 
is removed from the department of profane to that 
of sacred history. 

How much has been made of the testimony of 
the Roman historian, Tacitus^ to some of the chief 
facts of the gospel history. It is the testimony of 
a Heathen, and, therefore, supposed to be incom- 
parably valuable. Now suppose that Tacitus the 
Heathen had not only been persuaded of the facts 
he has related, but had been so deeply impressed 
with the belief of them as to have renounced hea- 
thenism and embraced the christian faith, and then 
published the history we now possess — who does 
not know that, Avith the infidel, and with many a 
believer, his testimony would have greatly suflered 
in practical force? No reason for this can be 
given, except that we have a vague idea that a 
Christian in the cause of Christianity must be an 
interested witness. To be sure he is interested. 
But is his testimony the less valuable ? 

A scientific man, bearing testimony to a pheno- 
menon in natural history, is an interested witness, 



LECTURE IV. 153 

because he is devoted to science, but his testimony 
is not the less valuable. A good man, bearing tes- 
timony to the character of another good man, is an 
interested w^itness, because he is the friend of vir- 
tue and of all good men, but his testimony is not 
the less valuable. In this, and no other sense, were 
the original disciples interested witnesses. They 
were interested in Christianity, only so far as they 
believed it true. Suppose them to have known it 
to be untrue, and you cannot imagine the least jot 
or tittle of interest they could have had in it. In 
such a case, on the contrary, the current of all their 
interests and prepossessions would run directly and 
powerfully in opposition to Christianity. This then, 
being all the way in which they can be regarded 
as interested, the force of their testimony, so far 
from being in the least impaired, is greatly en- 
hanced by the consideration. The bare fact that 
any primitive writer, bearing witness to events re- 
lated by St. John, was not a Heathen, or a Jew, 
but a Christian, is the very thing that should be 
regarded as completing his testimony. Is the evi- 
dence of Tacitus, who relates such events, but 
remained a Heathen, any thing like so strong ; as if 
we could say, it is the evidence of Tacitus, who 
was a Heathen, but believed those events so firmly 
that he became a Christian 7 If a man speak well 
to me of the virtues of a certain medicine, but does 
not use it himself, is his opinion half so weighty as 
if he were to receive it into his own vitals, and ad- 
minister it in his family ? Would it be reasonable, 
20 



154 



LECTURE IV. 



in this case, to refuse his testimony, because you 
might denominate him an interested witness ? 

I have thus enlarged upon this head, because I 
am going to present you with the concurrent testi- 
mony of seven ancient writers, in confirmation of 
the accuracy of the gospel history, as given by St. 
John. They are writers whose testimony has this 
particular value, that, whereas once they were 
Jews and enemies to the gospel, they were after- 
wards converted to its belief and service ; became 
Christians, and as Christians wrote, and gave every 
practical evidence that what they wrote they be- 
lieved. Of these, three composed regular histories 
of the life and labours of Christ, similar in object to 
that of John. One of them, beside a memoir of 
Christ, has carried on the subsequent history of 
Christianity, under the name of the Acts of the 
Apostles. Four others composed various letters to 
different individuals, or bodies of Christians, in 
which they allude continually to events related in 
the narratives of the former. Now all these several 
writings are perfectly independent, each of the rest. 
We have them bound up in one volume, and are 
apt to overlook the fact tliat they are as independ- 
ent productions as if they had never been in contact 
with one another. Written by various authors in 
widely remote countries, in all parts of the first 
century from its forty-first to its ninety-seventh 
year, in as many different styles and methods as 
they had writers ; these productions cannot, with 
the least reason, be suspected of having been com- 



LECTURE IV. 155 

posed in concert. Of the competency of the 
knowledge of each writer, we can have no more 
doubt than in the case of St. John. In each of 
their histories we see the same circumstantiality ^ 
the same striking internal characteristics of ho- 
nesty as we have already noticed in that of the 
other evangelist. Now, let us divest ourselves of 
the delusion so apt to arise out of the thought 
that they are christian witnesses ; and as if this 
were a question as to the truth of a history of 
Pythagoras, by one of his disciples, and these other 
writers were also contemporaneous disciples of 
Pythagoras, let us bring them face to face, and see 
how they agree. Here, then, we have four inde- 
pendent histories of the life of Christ, all of them 
by his contemporaries, besides the other documents 
we have mentioned. Now, " it is an extraordinary 
and singular fact that no history since the com- 
mencement of the world has been written by so 
great a number of the companions and friends of 
an illustrious person, as that of our Saviour. One 
contemporary history is a rarity — two is a coin- 
cidence scarcely known — four is, so far as appears, 
unparalleled."* We have, therefore, an unequalled 
opportunity of coming at the truth. We compare 
our several histories. If we find them contradic- 
tory, our confidence declines. If they bear a sys- 
tematic, particular, and yet comprehensive resem- 
blance, we must suspect collusion. But we per- 

* Wilson's Lectures. 



156 LECTURE IV, 

ceive neither the contradiction nor the resemblance. 
We see great variety. What one relates another 
sometimes leaves out. They differ in arrangement, 
in minuteness, and sometimes as to fact, in such 
manner that the reader might be alarmed at first 
view, lest there should be found a contradiction ; 
while such is the actual agreement, that all diffi- 
culties vanish before a strict investigation; and, 
down to the utmost minuteness of statement, their 
mutual support is undiminished by a single oppo- 
sing representation. The attempts of infidels to 
make out the appearance of a contradiction, show 
to what shifts they have been driven, and how ac- 
curate is the concurrence. Now this unfailing 
agreement of four several, independent, and contem- 
poraneous historians — each so circumstantial — 
each so full of allusions to the events, and institu- 
tions, and customs of the times — and none contra- 
dicted by any evidence whatever — is as convincing 
an evidence of the honest accuracy of all, as any 
mind should require. Were the gospel history un- 
true, such evidence would have been morally im- 
possible. It is peculiar to that history. No other 
can plead it, to any similar extent. And here we 
feel that we might safely leave the question of cre- 
dibility. But there are two or three points re- 
maining, which must not be left imnoticed. 

Should I occupy enough of your time to take 
any thing like a full view of the whole of this ar- 
gument, I should here introduce the uncontradicted 
acknowledgment of Jewish and Heathen enemies 



LECTURE IV, 157 

of the gospel, to the purity and integrity of the 
primitive disciples of Christ ; the strong evidence 
of their having possessed these virtues, exhibited 
in the peculiarly modest and humble manner in 
which the evangelists speak of themselves, never 
concealing or excusing what might make exceed- 
ingly against them, but always mentioning what 
might seem humiliating or honourable to themselves 
in the same plain, simple way as they relate any 
other matter of fact. We should also introduce 
the variety of incidental confirmations obtained 
from profane writers, and from coins, of various 
particulars contained in the gospel history. We 
should cite especially the testimony of Tacitus to the 
time and the fact of the Saviour's crucifixion ; as 
well as the records called the Acts of Pilate, bear- 
ing witness to the same event, and appealed to by 
early christian writers as notoriously laid up 
among the papers of the Roman senate. But since 
we have not room for every thing, we must dis- 
pense with these particulars.* 

Let it be remembered that we are still employed 
upon the honesty of the writers of the gospel history. 
Suppose, then, for a moment, that they were not ho- 
nest in their statements — that they knew they were 
endeavouring to pass off" a downright imposition 
upon the world. We will not speak of their intel- 
lect in such a case, but of their motive. Now, it 
would be difficult to suppose that any man could 

* See Home's Introd. vol. i. 



158 LECTURE IV. 

devote himself to the diligent promotion of such an 
imposture without some very particular motive. 
Much more that, without such motive, the eight 
various w^-iters concerned in the New Testament 
should have united in the plan. What motive could 
they have had ? If impostors, they were bad men ; 
their motive, therefore, must have been bad. It 
must have been to advance themselves, either in 
wealth, honour, or power. Take either, or all of 
these objects, and here, then, is the case you have. 
Four historians, with four other writers of the 
New Testament — all, but one of them, poor un- 
learned men — undertake to persuade the world 
that certain great events took place before the eyes 
of thousands in Judea and Galilee, which none in 
those regions ever saw or heard of, and tliey know, 
perfectly well, did never occur. They see before- 
hand that the attempt to make Jews and Heathens 
believe these things will occasion to themselves all 
manner of disgrace and persecution. Neverthe- 
less, so fond are they of their contrivance, that 
though it is bitterly opposed by all the habits, pre- 
judices, dispositions, and philosophy — all the pow- 
ers and institutions of all people — they submit 
cheerfully to misery and contempt — they take joy- 
fully the spoiling of their goods — they willingly 
endure to be counted as fools and the ofl'scouring 
of all things — yea, they march thankfully to death 
out of a mere desire to propagate a story which 
they all know is a downright fabrication. At 
every step of tlieir progress they see and feel, that 



LECTURE IV. 159 

instead of any worldly advantage, they are daily 
loading themselves with ruin. At any moment 
they can turn about and renounce their effort, and 
retrieve their losses ; and yet, with perfect unani- 
mity, these eight, with thousands of others equally 
aware of the deception, persist most resolutely in 
their career of ignominy and suffering. Not the 
slightest confession, even under torture and the strong 
allurements of reward, escapes the lips of any. Not 
the least hesitation is shown when to each is of- 
fered the choice of recantation or death. He that 
can believe such a case of fraud and folly as this, 
can believe any thing. He believes a miracle infi- 
nitely more difficult of credit than any in the gospel 
history. I charge him with the most superstitious 
and besotted credulity. In getting to such a be- 
lief, he has to trample over all the laws of nature 
and of reasoning. Then on what an unassailable 
rock does the honesty of the writers of the New 
Testament stand, if it can be attacked only at 
such sacrifices. How evident it is, not only that 
they could have had no motive to deceive, but that 
in all their self-devotion and sacrifices they gave 
the strongest possible evidence of having published 
what they solemnly believed was true* 

* " We cannot make use (says Hume) of a more convincing- 
argument" (in proof of honesty) " than to prove that the actions 
ascribed to any persons are contrary to the course of nature, and 
that no human motives, in such circumstances, could ever induce 
them to such a conduct." Philosophical Essays. 



160 



LECTURE IV. 



Now, if I have produced satisfactory proof from 
all the unquestionable marks of honesty in the gos- 
pel history ; from the concurrence of profane his- 
torians with many of its facts; from their being 
contradicted by none ; from the unprecedented har- 
mony of eiglit independent writers in their minutest 
events and allusions ; from the impossibility of sup- 
posing any motive to deception, and from the sacri- 
fices the apostles endured in the promotion of 
Christianity; if from these sources I have satisfac- 
torily shown that the writers of the gospel history 
could not have intended to record any thing but 
truth — then, having previously ascertained that 
they must have known whether what they wrote 
was true or false, we have those two requisites 
which ensure the credibility of any history— 
kyiowledge and honesty. This shuts up the ques- 
tion. But it is not the whole strength of the argu- 
ment. A question may be shut up and locked; 
but then it may have bolts and bars besides. The 
truth of the gospel history is not only sealed, but 
sealed seven-fold. 

It has all the testimony that could possibly have 
been expected^ in the nature of things, from the ene- 
mies of Christianity. It would have been unrea- 
sonable to expect that a Heathen or Jew would 
come forward with a detailed statement to ac- 
knowledge the events narrated by the evangelists. 
We have not this ; but we have much better. We 
have the confession of the whole nation of Jews 
and of all the Greeks to the same point. None 



LECTURE IV. 161 

ever ventured in any publication to deny the state- 
ments of the evangelists. Unquestionably they 
would have done it, every w^here, had they been 
able. When Luke published in Jerusalem, that a 
man lame from the birth was healed by Peter and 
John, while sitting, begging, at the gate of the tem- 
ple, and that a great multitude came together on 
account of the wonderful deed ; had the Jews of 
Jerusalem been able to deny it, would their perse- 
cuting enmity have permitted them to be silent? 
Be it remembered that the gospel history was pub- 
lished in the places where its events are said to 
have occurred — in the lifetime of many enemies 
who are said to have seen them. Now it is certain 
that no adversaries, either in Judea, or Greece, or 
Rome, rested their opposition to the gospel, in any 
degree, on the denial of these events. What is the 
consequence ? They could not deny them. What 
is the meaning of this silence ? Being interpreted, 
it is nothing less than a universal testimony from 
all Jews and Heathens, who were capable of 
knowing any thing of the matter, that these things 
were so. But they did not stop here. Tacitus, the 
Roman historian, positively asserts some of the 
chief events of the gospel.* Celsus, a bitter anta- 
gonist of Christianity, in the second century ;t Por- 
phyry, a learned as well as earnest opposer, in the 
third; J and Julian, the apostate emperor, in the 
next century ;§ all acknowledge not only the au- 

* Laidner iii. Gil, t lb- iv. 121—130 ; 133, 4. J lb, 234—8. 
§ lb, 341, 2. 
21 



162 LECTURE IV, 

thenticity of tlie New Testament books, but, so tar 
a& they refer to them, tlie historical correctness of 
their narratives, even as to the most extraordinary 
particulars, not excluding the miracles of Christ. 
But we have stronger witness still. 

About thirty-two years after the crucifixion, 
took place the first Roman persecution, under Ne- 
ro. The number of Christians discovered in the 
one city of Rome, and condemned, is called by Ta- 
citus " a vast tnultitudeP^ Of course they must 
have been exceedingly numerous in all other places 
taken together. These but a few years before were 
all either Jeios or Heathens. Many resided in Je- 
rusalem, Capernaum, Antioch, Philippi, Ephesus, 
Corinth, &c. By the time of this persecution, all 
the Gospels, but one, as well as the Acts of the 
Apostles, had been published. The events re- 
corded in these books are said to have taken place 
before the eyes of the people of the cities just men- 
tioned. It was an easy thing for those people to 
ascertain whether they, or their neighbours, or pa- 
rents, had seen them. What did they do ? They 
came forward in great multitudes ; they threw oil' 
Judaism ; threw off paganism ; espoused the gospel, 
and suffered unto death, sooner than renounce it. 
This was but thirty-three years after the events 
recorded of Christ ; it was in the life-time of Paul. 
I say, therefore, that every Christian of those days 
was a witness — the strongest witness — far more 

* Tac. Annal., lib. xv. c. 44 ; Laidiici, iii (JlO— 14. 



LECTURE IV, 16S 

impressive in his attestation than any enemy could 
have been, to the shining, powerful truth of the 
gospel history. " We are compassed about," there- 
fore, "with a great cloud of loitnesses f^ witnesses 
who did not just acknowledge these things, and 
still remain what they were before ; but witnesses 
adding to their acknowledgment the testimony of 
their conversion ; the evidence of their lives, which 
were wholly devoted to these things ; the seals of 
ten thousand martyrdoms, endured solely on ac- 
count of their perfect assurance of these things. 

Now consider a moment, and see the utter im- 
possibility that the gospel history should have 
gained such currency for a single year, had it not 
been notoriously true. In about eight years after 
the crucifixion, Matthew publishes his Gospel 
among the Jews. He tells the people of Jerusalem 
that, only eight years from that time, while a great 
multitude of them were witnessing the crucifixion 
of our Lord Jesus, there was darkness over the whole 
land from twelve, to three o'clock in the afternoon, 
and " the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and 
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." Suppose 
all this to have been a fabrication ; would Jerusa- 
lem have held her peace 1 could a book of such 
barefaced untruth have lived an hour ? 

The book of the Acts of the Apostles was pub- 
lished about thirty years after the ascension of 
Christ, and was immediately circulated among the 
churches, and open to the perusal of the enemies 
of Christianity. It is related in the second chapter 



164 LECTURE IV, 

of that work, that on the day of Pentecost, soon 
after the death of Christ, when a great multitude, 
collected from all parts of the earth, were assem- 
bled at Jerusalem ; a deep impression of astonish- 
ment was produced on the public mind by a ru- 
mour of certain miraculous events in the company 
of the apostles, so that " the multitude came to- 
gether and were confounded, because that every 
man heard them speak in his own language." 
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and Cretes, 
and Arabians ; dwellers in all countries ; men of 
every speech, were amazed at hearing those Gali- 
leans, who were well known to have learned no 
other tongue than that of Palestine, speaking in all 
varieties of foreign languages, the wonderful works 
of God. Such is the relation in the Acts of the 
Apostles. How could a writer, in his senses, at- 
tempt to pass it upon his readers had it not been 
notorious that such things had actually occurred? 
The lapse of thirty years could not have so oblite- 
rated every recollection of that feast ; or so swept 
the world of surviving witnesses, as to prevent the 
certainty, that wherever this book should circulate 
it would meet with persons capable of remember- 
ing or of ascertaining whether these things were so. 
Had not the fact of the apostles liaving spoken in 
the presence of thousands, in various tongues, been 
undeniable, witnesses inniunerable would liave 
arisen against the book tliat related it. Had no sucli 
event occurred, the Acts of the A])ostles could 
have gone into U(^ ]>nr( of Uie worhl ^^ ithoul find- 



LECTURE ly. 1G5 

ing lliose who would stand up and declare that 
they were at the feast referred to, and saw nothing 
and heard nothing of the marvellous things de- 
clared hy its author. I say, therefore, the fact that 
the gospel history was received, loved, and read, 
every where among Christians ; that it has outlived 
all the withering of time, and all the weapons of 
enemies ; that Jews could not gainsay it, nor Hea- 
thens resist it ; that eighteen centuries of scrutiny 
and trial have only added new assurance to its 
truth, is one which reduces the supposition of im- 
posture to a perfect and ridiculous absurdity. 
Therefore was it not in the power of such modern 
infidels as Hobbes, and Chub, and Bolingbroke, to 
deny the point in question. The latter, as an ex- 
ample of the others, speaking of John and Mat- 
thew, acknowledges that " they recorded the doc- 
trines of Christ in the very words in wiiich he 
taught them ; and they were careful to mention 
the several occasions on which he delivered them 
to his disciples or others. If, therefore, Plato and 
Xenophon tell us, with a good deal of certainty, 
what Socrates taught, these two evangelists seem 
to tell us, with much more, what the Saviour 
taught, and commanded them to teach." 

Here I think we may safely leave the question 
of credibility. So conclusive and certain have 
seemed to my mind the several consecutive argu- 
ments to which you have listened, that instead of 
feeling at each step as if any candid hearer would 
Avait for additional proof, I have felt not unfre- 



166 



LECTURE IV= 



quently as if I were tiring yonr attention with an 
unnecessary accumulation, Why tliis heaping of 
argument upon argument, one may say, when from 
the very outset of the question, from the certain 
authenticity of the Gospels, united with their inter- 
nal evidence, we have a proof of credibility with 
which any rational mind should be perfectly satis- 
fied ? We acknowledge the reasonableness of the 
inquiry. If the history under consideration related 
to the life of Alexander the Great and his generals, 
instead of that of the meek and lowly Jesus and 
his apostles, who would think it necessary to go 
into all this detail of evidence to establish its 
truth? That it contained no internal marks of 
dishonesty ; that it was uncontradicted by contem- 
poraneous writers and by other histories of the same 
times ; that it had been received, ever since, as a 
true account ; would be considered an ample war- 
rant of its historical correctness. Few, if any, 
profane histories, can produce more positive proof 
of credibility than this. Try them by the scale 
on which the gospel history is measured ; require 
tliem to present one half of the weight of evidence 
which infidels demand, and Christians bring in 
support of the sacred narrative ; and you must ex- 
clude them from all claim to the confidence of their 
readers. We might speak of the unfairness of re- 
quiring so much more in proof of a history because 
its character is sacred, and its facts are connected 
with religion. I see not that the inferences arising 
from an event, are entitled to any iniluencc in 



LECTURE IV. 167 

changing ilie amount of evidence necessary to its 
proof. Wlietlier an evangelist be worthy of de- 
pendence, when he relates the works of Jesvis, is a 
question of testimony to be determined by the same 
degree of proof as should satisfy us as to the accu- 
racy and honesty of any other writer, on any other 
subject of history. But we have no disposition to 
complain that so much has been demanded in evi- 
dence of the gospel narrative. It has only served 
to quicken the investigations of the friends of truths 
and to exhibit, with a more impressive assurance, 
those great events, on which all that is precious in 
a Christian's faith is founded. It has showed, not 
only how amply, but how wonderfully the God of 
truth and grace has made the anchor of our hope 
to be sure and steadfast. It teaches how, in the 
hands of Divine Wisdom, the wrath of man is 
made subsidiary to the praise of God; how the 
fiery darts of the wicked are not only broken 
against the shield of faith, but made the means of 
increasing the light by which the Christian is 
guided, and often of carrying back confusion into 
the ranks of the enemy. It should lead the be- 
liever to adore, with admiring gratitude, the good- 
ness of Him, who, for the sake of those that love 
Him, causes all the schemes and assaults of unbe- 
lievers to work together for good ; making it more 
and more manifest, by the defeat of every new at- 
tack, that this is " the true light " — '' the shining 
light, which shineth more and more unto the per- 
fect day." 



168 LECTURE IV. 

Had we time, or were it needful, to enter upon a 
particular view of the authenticity and credibility 
of the Old Testament volume, this would be the 
place for the argument. But we have room only 
to advert to it. The connection between the truth 
of the christian scriptures and that of the Jewish 
is so obvious and essential ; the dispensation of 
Christ so continually assumes the divine authority 
of that of Moses, and is so evidently built on its 
foundations; the writings of the apostles so fre- 
quently quote and refer to the law and the pro- 
phets, as authentic, credible, and inspired scrip- 
tures ; the argument for the books of the Old Tes- 
tament is so parallel, in its mode and means, to that 
for the books of the New ; and the cavils of scep- 
tics, in relation to the former, are so similar in ob- 
jection, principle, and reasoning, to those with 
which they assail the latter ; that in having esta- 
blished the authenticity and credibility of the one, 
we may be fairly said to have done the same, in 
outline, for the character of the other. Certain 
we are, that one who is intelligently convinced of 
the authenticity and credibility of the New Testa- 
ment, will not halt between two opinions as to the 
writings of Moses and the prophets, but will read 
them as assuredly the writings of those whose 
names they bear ; and deserving, in relation to all 
matters of fact, the character of credible scrip- 
tures. 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE V. 



MIRACLES. 



Our last lecture was on the credibility of the 
GOSPEL HISTORY. In a previous one, we ascertained 
the AUTHENTICITY of the books in which it is con- 
tained. If the evidence adduced in proof of both 
these fundamental articles appeared as satisfactory 
to the hearers, as to the speaker, we are then pre- 
pared to open the New Testament with the assur- 
ance that the books it contains were written by 
those original disciples whose names they bear ; 
and that we may confidently depend on the histo- 
rical correctness of their statements. The seals, 
therefore, of the volume are now unloosed. Im- 
22 



170 LECTURE V, 

mediately on inspecting the contents, it appears 
that the grand and continual reference is to Jesus 
Christ, as a Teacher and Saviour sent from God, 
to communicate personally, and by his apostles, 
a revelation of truth and duty to man. This 
revelation, the New Testament professes to contain. 
Now, the grand question is, ivhat are the evidences 
that the religion contained in the JVew Testament is 
a divine revelation ? 

When an ambassador from a foreign power pre- 
sents himself at our seat of government, charged 
with certain communications from his sovereign, 
he first exhibits his credentials of appointment. 
These being satisfactory, whatever he may commu- 
nicate, in his official character, is received with as 
much reliance as if it were heard from the lips of 
his sovereign himself. It is treated as a revelation 
of the mind or will of that sovereign. In the New 
Testament we read that our Lord Jesus Christ ap- 
peared among men as an ambassador from God, 
charged with certain important proposals to the 
world. Before we can be justified in receiving 
them, as a divine revelation, we must know the 
credentials of the ambassador ; we must have suffi- 
cient evidence that he was sent of God. Furnish 
this, and we are bound to receive his communica- 
tions, as confidently as if they should be heard di- 
rectly from the throne of the Most High. Thus the 
Jews said to him : " What sign showest thou, that 
Ave may see and believe thee 7 What dost thou 



LECTURE V. 171 

work ?"* The Saviour, admitting the propriety of 
the demand, appealed to his loorks, as his creden- 
tials. " The works that I do, they bear witness of 
me." On another occasion, he called up his mi- 
racles. " The blind (said he) receive their sight, 
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf 
hear, and the dead are raised up."t As if he had 
said : " Such works can only be done by the 
direct and supernatural interposition of the power 
of God. They are done at my word and will. 
They are therefore a perfect attestation that God 
is with me, and that my claim to your confidence 
as His ambassador is true." Nicodemus under- 
stood this, and expressed no other than the plain 
dictate of common sense, when he said to Jesus : 
" We know that thou art a teacher come from 
God, for no man can do these miracles which thou 
doest except God be with him. "J The credentials 
of the apostles, as subordinate agents of divine re- 
velation, are expressed in like manner. ^' God also 
bearing them witness, both with signs and won- 
ders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the 
Holy Ghost."§ None can question the absolute 
certainty of such credentials. This has been ac- 
knowledged even by the most famous advocates of 
infidelity. Woolston says : " I believe it will be 
granted on all hands that the restoring a person 
indisputably dead to life is a stupendous miracle, 

* John vi. 30— ii. 18. f Mat. xi. 5. J John iii. 2. 
§ Heb. ii. 4. 



172 



LECTURE V. 



and that two or three such miracles, well attested 
and credibly reported, are enough to conciliate the 
belief that the author of them was a divine agent, 
and invested with the power of God."* Make 
good, therefore, the evidence that the Saviour and 
his apostles wrought miracles in attestation of their 
divine mission, and the christian religion, as con- 
tained in the New Testament, and taught by them, 
must be a divine revelation. 

Our way, therefore, is plain. We must inquire 
into the evidence on which it can be established, 
that the Saviou?' and his apostles did loork miracles. 
To this inquiry we should proceed immediately, 
were it not for the peculiar circumstances which 
meet us in the way. The adversaries of the gos- 
pel have had wit enough to see that either the 
evidence of miracles must be overthrown, or they 
must surrender the contest. Unable to meet the 
direct and abounding testimony by which the won- 
derful works of Christ and his apostles are proved, 
they have taken position and entrenched them- 
selves upon the advanced and desperate ground of 
the insufficiency of any testimony to prove a mi- 
racle. Thus have we a redoubt in our way, com- 
manding the whole field of controversy, which 
though easily carried when properly assailed, would 
be of great damage, if left in our rear. The pre- 
sent lecture will be occupied, therefore, with the 
discussion of certain preliminary subjects, antici- 

* Scheme of Literal Prophecy, pp. 321, 322. 



LECTURE V. 173 

pating a direct application to the evidence of mi- 
racles, in our next. We commence with the fol- 
lowing proposition. 

I. There is nothing unreasonable or improbable in 
the idea of a miracle behig wrought in proof of a 
divine revelation. I know not but that all persons, 
of ordinary information, have a sufficiently correct 
idea of what is meant by a miracle, without the 
aid of a definition. No one would mistake the re- 
storation of sight to the blind, by the use of human 
skill, however wonderful it migiit be considered, 
for a miracle. No one could mistake the sudden 
communication of sight to one born blind at the 
mere word of another, without any intervening 
cause, for any thing else than a miracle. The for- 
mer result, though astonishing, would be according 
to the common course of nature^ or to what are 
called the laws of nature. The latter would be 
beyond^ or different from those laics. One would be 
a natural, the other a supernatural event, or a mi- 
racle* 

Now the idea of a revelation from God, and the 
idea of a miracle to attest the divine commission 
of those who make it, are essentially connected. 
If one or more individuals be sent to communicate 
the revelation, they must prove their mission by 
some credentials. What can their credentials be 
but miracles ? The necessity of these will be evi- 
dent from a little consideration. They can appeal 

* See Gregory's Letters, i. 167. 



174 LECTURE V. 

to but three sorts of proof; the internal excellence 
and fitness of their communications ; their own in- 
tegrity and judgment ; and the miraculous works 
attendant on their ministry. With regard to the 
two former, it is manifest that, in the most favoura- 
ble circumstances, they would need too much time, 
and evidence, and discrimination, for their own es- 
tablishment ; and would always remain of a cha- 
racter too uncertain, to permit their being used 
with any effect in proof of a divine revelation. 
They would answer well as auxiliaries ; but would 
require something of a much more positive nature 
to sustain the chief burden of proof The claim to 
be received as a messenger of God, for the purpose 
of making a revelation to the world, could never 
be substantiated on such grounds. Evidence is 
needed which all minds may appreciate. It must 
be something that has only to be seen, to be under- 
stood and acknowledged. When a plenipotentiary 
presents himself at the seat of government, en- 
trusted with certain communications from a fo- 
reign power, of great importance on both sides, and 
requiring to be immediately acted upon, it would 
not answer for him to plead, in evidence of his de- 
legated authority, that his personal integrity is 
unimpeached, and his communications are such as 
might be expected from his government. The time 
for action would be lost while such proof was being 
proved. He must exhibit credentials Avliich carry 
on their face the direct evidence of his commission. 
He must show the broad seal of his sovereign 



LECTURE V. 175 

stamped upon their hand writing. So must an 
ambassador from God. What then can he show 
but miracles ? What else can set to his commu- 
nications the seal of God ? The persons concern- 
ed must show a sign from heaven. " In fact, the 
very idea of a revelation includes that of mira- 
cles, A revelation cannot be made but by a mira- 
culous interposition of Deity."* 

So that the idea of miracles can be unrea- 
sonable or improbable only so far as it is unrea- 
sonable or improbable that God should commis- 
sion one or more persons to make a revelation of 
his truth and will. That such a revelation was 
needed in the world at the time when Christ 
appeared, can be denied only by asserting that 
the additional light now possessed, in consequence 
of the gospel, is superfluous and useless. This 
denial can only be maintained by showing that 
the world, sunk in idolatry, vice, and darkness, 
as it was universally before the gospel came, 
had all the knowledge of God, and all the assu- 
rance of his will, and of the retributions of a fu- 
ture state, that were important to its happiness. 
A matter of proof which I suppose no one here 
imagines to be possible. Then if it cannot be 
shown that a revelation was not needed; it cannot 
be proved that the idea of a revelation, from a 
God of infinite goodness and mercy, was either un- 
reasonable or improbable. But a revelation can 

* Gregory's Letters. 



176 LECTURE V. 

be attested only by miracles. They are insepara- 
ble. Consequently, in the idea of miracles being 
wrought in proof of divine revelation, there is no- 
thing either unreasonable or improbable. 

It would not be difficult to show, that in the cir- 
cumstances of the world at the christian era, a re- 
velation was not only probable but necessary ; and, 
by manifest consequence, that miracles, as its ne- 
cessary attestations, were also not only probable 
but necessary. Having thus endeavoured to show 
that there is no presumptive evidence against a mi- 
racle, except as it lies equally against a revelation ; 
and that the one is probable, in proportion as the 
other may be expected ; let us proceed to our se- 
cond proposition. 

II. If iniracles were wrought in attestation of the 
mission of Christ and his apostles^ they can he ren- 
dered credible to us by no other evidence than that of 
testimony. There are various descriptions of evi- 
dence, as the evidence of sense — the evidence of ma- 
thematical demonstration — the evidence of testimony. 
Each of these has its own department of subjects. 
A question of morals cannot be demonstrated by 
mathematics, or proved by the senses. A question 
of historical fact can be settled only by testimony. 
It might as well be put to tlie tests of chemistry, 
as to have applied to it either the evidence of ma- 
thematical demonstration, or of the senses. 

Not only is there a separate department for 
each of these species of evidence ; but each is suffi- 
cient, in its appropriate place, for the complete es- 



LECTURE V. 177 

tablisliment of truth. By this I mean, that when 
the quantity of an angle is proA^ed by mathematical 
demonstration, we have a result of no more prac- 
tical confidence than when the existence of this 
house is proved by the senses, or that of the city of 
London is proved by testimony. Proof in either 
case is the foundation of entire belief. We are 
. just as certain that such a man as Napoleon once 
lived, as that any proposition in geometry is true — 
though one is a matter of testimony, the other of 
demonstration. We are quite as sure that arsenic 
is poisonous, as that food is nutritious — though one 
is, to most of us at least, a matter of testimony 
only ; while the other is, to all, a matter of sense. 
We are perfectly certain of all these things. 

It is likely that some minds are led into erro- 
neous notions of the comparative conclusiveness 
of testimony on one side, and that of mathema- 
tical demonstration and of the senses on the other, 
on account of the technical name by which the 
former is distinguished in philosophical discussions.* 
It is called probable evidence. It would seem to 
some as if, because probable^ it must be less satis- 
factory than the other kinds; since in common 
speech, what is merely probable is not certain. 
But in philosophical language, the word probable 
is used, not in divStinction horn certain evidence, but 
simply from that which is sensible or demonstra- 
tive, without reference to the measure of certainty 

* Stewart's Phil, ii,, p. 179. 
23 



178 LECTURE V, 

attached to it. Thus, our belief that the sun will 
rise to-morrow, or that we are all to die, or that 
London was once visited with a dreadful plague, is 
founded on what is calledp?'o6a6/e evidence ; though 
we should be suspected of lunacy did we question 
the propriety of acting upon it with perfect assu- 
rance. Such, then, being the sufficiency of testi- 
mony to convey a perfect assurance of any thing 
in its appropriate sphere, however distant in point 
of time or place; I return to the proposition that if 
miracles were wrought by Christ and his apostles, 
they can be rendered credible to us, of the nineteenth 
century, by no other evidence than that of testimony. 
Mathematical evidence is evidently inapplicable to 
the question. It is a matter of fact belonging to 
another century, and therefore intangible by sense. 
Nothing remains but testimony. This is perfectly 
appropriate to the question. If, therefore, the gos- 
pel miracles are true, they must be substantiated 
by testimony, or not at all. We proceed to the 
next proposition. 

III. Miracles are capable of being proved by tes- 
timony. This I consider as true and obvious as 
that miracles are capable of being proved by the 
evidence of the senses. That a certain person was 
dead and buried yesterday ; and that lie is alive 
and walking the streets to day ; the senses are per- 
fectly competent to decide. I never heard of this 
being questioned. But if I and twenty others saw 
these facts, is there no way of making them credi- 
ble to my neighbour who did not see them ? Will 



LECTURE V. 179 

it be pretended, that if twenty men of unquestiona- 
ble honesty and intelligence, should solemnly and 
by every means of conviction in their power, as- 
sure me that they saw the man dead, buried, and 
in corruption, I would have no sufficient reason to 
believe their assertion 7 Will it be pretended, 
that if the same men should in the same way 
assure me, that subsequently they saw the 
same man alive, and conversed with liim ; I 
would have no reason to believe their assertion 1 
I think there are none among us who could avoid 
belief in such a case. It would evidently be a 
case of miracle, believed on testimony; and to 
maintain that it would be believed without reason, 
and that no conceivable addition of honest testi- 
mony could furnish reason for the belief of those 
two simple facts, that the man was dead yesterday 
and is alive to day, would seem an absurdity too 
gross to be touched by argument. 
/ Here I should leave the matter, confident in 
the common sense of my hearers, were it not that 
the very absurdity, in view, has been so mystified 
with the drugs of false philosophy, so disguised un- 
der the dress of logical forms and ceremonies, and 
so followed, in its circulation, with the influence 
of one of the chief names in modern scepticism, as to 
perplex many minds, unaccustomed to the entan- 
glements of sophistry. The principle that no con- 
ceivable amount of testimony can prove a miracle, 
with David Hume for its original champion, has 
been eagerly adopted by the many whose conve- 



180 LECTURE V. 

nience makes them unbelievers, but whose conve- 
nience it would not suit to attempt an honest, 
manly answer to the abounding testimony by which 
the miracles of the gospel are proved. A labour- 
saving machine was wanted, by which the whole 
business of silencing the inconvenient variety and 
troublesome multitude of christian evidences might 
be done at once, as well by the ignorant as the 
learned. Hume invented it. Any body can work 
it. It is not necessary, any more, that a man 
should study the Bible, to refute its claims. He 
may never have seen it ; but if he can only retain 
in his memory these few talismanic words, "iVb 
testimony can inove a miracle,^ ^ it is enough. At 
the rubbing of this marvellous lamp, the fabric of 
Christianity passes away. The terrible genii of the 
gospel mysteries dissolve in air. Like a similar as- 
sertion, and equally philosophical doctrine of the 
same writer, that there is no external world — that 
this house is nothing but an idea, built not of mat- 
ter, but only of mind — this happy invention of 
sceptical ingenuity digs so far below the founda- 
tions of all truth and common sense, that the man 
whose convenience bids him use it, may feel as- 
sured that not many advocates of Christianity will 
descend low enough to spoil him of his consolation. 

A brief attention to this matter will not be out 
of place at present. 

The argument of the writer referred to, is 
abridged, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, as fol- 
lows : " Our belief of anv fact from the testimony 



LECTURE V. 181 

of eye-witnesses is derived from no other principle 
than our experience of the veracity of human tes- 
timony. If the fact attested be miraculous, there 
arises a contest of tv\^o opposite experiences, or proof 
against proof Now a miracle is a violation of the 
laws of nature ; and as a firm and unalterable ex- 
perience has established these laws, the proof 
against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, 
is as complete as any argument from experience 
can possibly be imagined ; and if so, it is an unde- 
niable consequence that it cannot be surmounted 
by any proof whatever, derived from human testi- 
mony." 

Now all this is very conclusive, provided we 
admit its premises. The grand hinge of the whole 
is this, that our belief in testimony is founded 
on no other principle than our experience op the 
VERACITY OF HUMAN TESTIMONY. Hcnco the rea- 
soning is, that a miracle being, in the author's 
estimation, contrary to experience, opposes and 
contradicts the very foundation of its evidence, and 
therefore destroys itself. But let me ask, admit- 
ting that a miracle is contrary to experience, (which 
is not true,) ichat experience is it contrary to ? The 
argument requires that it should be contrary to our 
experience of the veracity of human testimony. To 
say merely that it is contrary to experience of some 
sort, without specifying this particular sort, does 
not touch the question. It is its contrariety to that 
particular kind of experience, on which our faith in 
testimony (according to Hume) is built, that must 



182 LECTURE V, 

destroy the credibility of a miracle, if it is to be 
destroyed at all. But this, it would be ridiculous 
to assert. So far from miracles being inconsistent 
with our experience of the veracity of human tes- 
timony ; the truth is directly on the other side. 
Deny that miracles were ever wrought, and your 
whole experience of the truth of testimony is di- 
rectly and violently opposed. 

But again — Is our- belief in testimony founded 
in our experience of its veracity ? Prove that it is 
not, and the whole argument of our author is un- 
dermined. The proof is easy. None depend more 
absolutely upon testimony than those whose expe- 
rience is almost a nullity. Children are perfect be- 
lievers in its veracity. All writers on the philoso- 
phy of the mind, but the one before us, consider it 
an original principle of nature that we should rely 
on testimony, until there is proof, either of suspi- 
cious competency to know, or of suspicious honesty 
to speak, the truth. This principle is necessary to 
human nature, long before any experience can 
be gathered up. Without it, how could children 
begin to learn 1 How could they avoid poison, or 
receive wholesome food, if they must wait for an 
experience of the veracity of their parents, and 
nurses, and teachers, before they can believe what 
they testify 1 The plain truth is, that instead of 
experience being our whole dependence for the 
credibility of testimony, it is just the school that 
makes us sometimes suspicious of that credibility. 
It teaches us that testimony may be false, and fur- 



LECTURE V. 183 

nislies the characteristics by which we may distin- 
guish between that which is suspicions, and that 
which may be contidently relied on. We deny, 
therefore, and with evident reason, the w^hole foun- 
dation of the argument we are considering. 

But again. Another essential hinge, in this ar- 
gument, is the assertion that a miracle, being, as the 
author defines it, "a violation of the laws of na- 
ture," is contrary to experience. Here we might 
deny that a miracle is a violation of the laws of 
nature. It is only a deviation from those laws, or 
from the customary mode of the divine operations. 
But, waiving this, what is meant by a miracle being 
contrary to experience ? Have we, or others ever 
experienced the opposite of any of the miracles of 
Christ '? I cannot conceive how this could be, un- 
less we had been on the spot when the miracle is 
said to have taken place, as when Lazarus is said 
to have risen from the dead ; and instead of seeing 
him rise, had seen him continue dead. That is the 
only way in which I can conceive of opposition be- 
tween experience and a miracle. The resurrection 
of Lazarus is not contrary to my experience, any 
more than a volcano is contrary to it. All I can 
say of either, in this respect, is, that I have never 
experienced it. It is beyond^ not in opposition to, 
my experience. 

But when our author asserts that miracles are 
contrary to experience, what are we to understand ? 
Does he mean one's own personal experience 1 or 
the experience of all mankind? If the former. 



184 



LECTURE V. 



then it would follow that testimony can render no 
event credible to us which we have not personally 
experienced. But this would be too sweeping, 
even for the most absolute scepticism. On this 
ground, a native of the torrid zone might refuse 
the testimony of the rest of the world in evidence 
of the fact that water in winter is so congealed 
that we can drive our carriages upon its surface. 
He need only say, " It is contrary to my experience. 
I have never seen it, and therefore no testimony 
can make it credible."* 

But does our author mean to be understood as 
affirming that miracles are contrary to the expe- 
rience of all mankind ? His argument will then 
stand as follows : ' Belief in testimony is founded 
on experience. But miracles are contrary to the 
experience of all mankind. They contradict, 
therefore, the credibility of testimony, and cannot 
be proved by it.' But this is a manifest assumption 
of the whole question. Whether miracles are con- 
trary to the experience of all mankind, is the pre- 
cise point in debate. We assert that mankind, in 
different ages and places, have experienced them. 
Our author is at liberty, if he pleases, to assert the 
contrary. But it is too much to expect us to 
receive his assertion until it is proved. And if 
his argument cannot be sustained without tlius 
taking for granted, in one of its premises, what it 

* On Hume's argument, in general, see the references in Home's 
Introd., vol. i. p. 243. 



LECTURE V. 185 

seeks to demonstrate in the conclusion, its correct- 
ness is certainly very suspicious. 

The admission of the principle on which the ar- 
gument under consideration is founded, would lead 
to perfect absurdity. " There was a time when no 
one was acquainted with the laws of magnetism ; 
these suspend in many instances the laws of gra- 
vity ; nor can I see, upon the principle in question, 
how the rest of mankind could have credited the 
testimony of their first discoverer ; and yet to have 
rejected it, would have been to reject the truth. 
But that a piece of iron should ascend gradually 
from the earth, and fly at last with an increasing 
rapidity through the air, and, attaching itself to 
another piece of iron ore, should remain suspended, 
in opposition to the action of its gravity, is conso- 
nant to the laws of nature. I grant it ; but there 
was a time when it was contrary, I say not to the 
laws of nature, but to the uniform experience of 
all preceding ages and countries ; and at the parti- 
cular point of time, the testimony of an individual 
or of a dozen individuals, who should have re- 
ported themselves eye-witnesses of such a fact, 
ought, according to the argumentation (of Mr. 
Hume) to have been received as fabulous. And 
what are those laws of nature, which according to 
this writer, can never be suvspended 7 Are they not 
different to different men, according to the diversi- 
ties of their comprehension and knowledge ? And 
if any one of them (that, for instance, which rules 
the operations of magnetism or electricity) should 
24 



186^ 



LECTURE V. 



have been known to you, or to me alone, whilst all 
the rest of the world were unacquainted with it ; 
the effects of it would have been new and unheard 
of in the annals, and contrary to the experience, 
of mankind, and therefore ought not in your opi- 
nion to have been believed,"* If this be the legi- 
timate result of the principle in question; if no 
testimony could have rendered the phenomena of 
magnetism credible, in the dawn of knowledge on 
that subject, because they were contrary to expe- 
rience ; it is evident that a certain truth and Hume's 
principle would have been, in that case, directly in 
opposition. But whether the experience of man- 
kind be opposed by phenomena above the laws of 
nature — mir^acles — or by phenomena which, though 
in reality according to those laws, are perfectly 
new, and, to all human view, inconsistent with the 
established order of nature, is of no consequence to 
the argument. Experience is opposed in both cases 
alike. It cannot be less absurd in one than in the 
other, to maintain, that because the phenomena 
have never been experienced, no testimony can 
make them credible. 

But if the argument of Hume, with all its as- 
sumptions, and false statements, and equivocal ex- 
pressions, were true ; it would prove not only that 
miracles cannot be proved by testimony, but that 
they cannot be proved at all. Now, that it is pos- 
sible for God to work a miracle, none will deny. 

* Bishop Watson. 



LECTURE V. 187 

Consequently, that it is possible that the miracles 
related in the New Testament are true, none will 
deny. Suppose them to be true, how can they be 
proved to us ? If testimony will not do, what re- 
mains ? Mathematical evidence — the evidence of 
the senses — are perfectly inapplicable. But there 
is no other description of evidence. If, therefore, 
those miracles are to be proved to us, it must be 
done by some species of evidence not now in exist- 
ence, entirely foreign to the laws of nature. In 
other words, it must be miraculous. Miracle must 
be brought to prove miracle. And since no testi- 
mony, according to the principle we are consider- 
ing, can prove a miracle, the very miracle which 
is brought in proof of those in the New Testament, 
must itself be proved by another before it can be 
believed by any who did not see it. But what an 
absurdity is here ! If Jesus did open the eyes of 
the blind, who can maintain that God has no way 
of giving all generations reason to believe it with- 
out an unceasing series of miracles in all places, for 
the purpose 7 

There is but one way of evading this extreme 
and absurd conclusion. It must be denied that we 
have any reason to believe that God can work a 
miracle. For as long as it is acknowledged to be 
possible that God, by the apostles, did work mira- 
cles, the possibility of His making them credible to 
us, without other miracles to prove them, and by 
the natural means of human testimony, must also 
be acknowledged ; the latter, to say the least of it, 



188 LECTURE V. 

being no greater effort of power than the former. 
To this necessity, the sagacity of our philosopher 
was not blind. Nor does he scruple at embracing 
it, rather than give up his favourite discovery. 
Speaking of some alledged miracles, he writes : 
'' What have we to oppose to such a cloud of wit- 
nesses, but the absolute impossibility or miraculous 
nature of the events" In this sentence, it is evi- 
dent that " absolute necessity" and " miraculous na- 
ture^" are used as equivalent expressions. But 
elsewhere he endeavours to persuade us that there 
is no reason to suppose that a miracle is possible 
with God. " Though the Being (he says) to whom 
the miracle is ascribed, be, in this case, Almighty, 
it does not, on that account, become a whit more 
probable ; since it is impossible for us to know the 
attributes or actions of such a Being, otherwise 
than from the experience which we have of his 
productions, in the usual course of nature." This 
brings us directly to atheism. The argument is 
thus. We know the attributes of God only by the 
experience of his works in the usual course of na- 
ture. But, according to our philosopher, we have 
no experience of a miracle among those works. 
Consequently, we have no knowledge that there is 
any divine attribute by which God can produce a 
miracle. Now, besides the folly of denying the 
possibility of a miracle, because nothing like it is 
found in the usual course of nature, when a mira- 
cle, by its definition, is out of the usual course of 
nature ; we have here the jilnin denial of the omni- 



LECTURE V. 189 

potence of God. For if we have no reason to be- 
lieve that God can produce an event differing from 
and above the ordinary course of nature, vs^e have 
no reason to suppose that he is Almighty ; or that 
he is the Sovereign of Nature ; or that He created, 
and preserves, and governs, all things. The nature 
and majesty of God are denied by this argument. 
It is atheism. There is no stopping place for con- 
sistency between the first principle of the essay of 
Hume, and the last step in the denial of God with 
the abyss of darkness forever. Hume, accordingly, 
had no belief in the being of God. If he did not 
positively deny it, he could not assert that he be- 
lieved it. He was a poor, blind, groping compound of 
contradictions. He was literally " without God and 
without hope ;" " doting about questions and strifes 
of words ;" and rejecting life and immortality out of 
deference to a paltry quibble, which common sense 
is ashamed of. " An unfortunate disposition to 
doubt every thing," said Lord Charlemont, one of 
his particular friends and admirers, " seemed in- 
terwoven with the nature of Hume, and never was 
there, I am convinced, a more thorough and sin- 
cere sceptic. He seemed not to be certain even of 
his own present existence, and could not, therefore, 
be expected to entertain any settled opinion re- 
specting his future state." 

But it was very needless for our author to give 
himself so much intellectual effort as must have 
been required for the invention of this short and 
easy method of undermining the evidences of Chris- 



190 LECTURE V. 

tianity, when he had previously produced a much 
shorter and easier plan. He had already proved, 
in his estimation, that there is no external world 
— nothing but ideas ; consequently there can be no 
external miracles — nothing but miraculous ideas. 
Why not hold to this ? It was certainly just as rea- 
sonable ; just as consistent with philosophy and 
common sense, as the idea that no testimony can 
prove a miracle. 

But our sweeping sceptic was not quite so well 
satisfied with his arguments against all testimony 
and all sense, as would at first appear. Speaking 
of his speculations, he says : " they have so wrought 
upon me, and heated my brain, that I am ready to 
reject all belief and reasoning, and can look upon 
no opinion even as more probable or likely than 
another. Where am I, or what ? From what 
causes do I derive my existence, and to what con- 
dition shall I return ? Whose favour shall I court, 
and whose anger must I dread ? What beings sur- 
round me, and on whom have I any influence, or 
who have any influence on me 1 I am confounded 
with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself 
in the most deplorable condition imaginable, envi- 
roned with the deepest darkness, and utterly de- 
prived of the use of every member and faculty." 
A sad confession this of the satisfaction of what 
he calls " the calm, though obscure regions of philo- 
sophyT 

But he proceeds: ''Most fortunately it happens 
that since reason is incapable of dispelling these 



LECTURE V. 191 

clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose, and 
cures me of this philosophical melancholy and deli- 
rium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by 
some avocation and lively impression of my senses, 
which obliterates all these chimeras. I dine, I 
play a game of back-gammon, I converse and am 
merry with my friends ; and when, after three or 
four hours amusement, I would return to these 
speculations, they appear so cold, and strained, and 
ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter 
into them any farther." A sad exhibition this of 
the dignity and consolations of scepticism. But if 
Mr. Hume was sometimes constrained to look upon 
his own speculations as strained and ridiculous, we 
may be pardoned if they appear to us in the same 
aspect. Indeed, it was more than he could do, to 
write consistently with them, for any length of 
time. His own common sense insisted, sometimes, 
on the privilege of speech ; so that, after all the 
show of reasoning to which we have been attend- 
ing ; after having asserted that " a 7]%irade^ sup- 
imi^ted by any human testimony^ is more loroperly a 
subject of derision than of argument," we find him 
apparently coming to himself, and making the fol- 
lowing most singular acknowledgment : " / oivn 
there may possibly be miracles of such a kind as to 
admit of proof fro7n human testimony" tie then 
states an imaginary case of miraculous occurrence, 
attested by a measure of proof, which, he says, 
philosophers ought to receive as certain testimony. 
But how is this 7 Has he entirely abandoned his 



192 LECTURE V. 

ground ? One would think so. But mark his me- 
thod of escape. We quote his words : " But should 
this miracle be ascribed to a new system of reli- 
gion, men in all ages have been so imposed on by 
ridiculous stories of that kind, that this very cir- 
cumstance would be a full proof of the cheat." 
Here, evidently, the whole ground is changed. Mi- 
racles are no more considered as incapable of proof 
by testimony. They are no more set at nought be- 
cause contrary to experience. It is admitted they 
may be proved by testimony, whether with object 
or without it, except when the object is religion. 
It is nothing, therefore, in the nature of a miracle, 
but only in its application, that renders it incredi- 
ble. This is indeed a change. A miracle may be 
proved any where but in the service of a revelation 
from God. But why ? Because, says our author, 
" men in all ages have been so imposed on by ridi- 
culous stories of that kind." Now, besides that it 
is untrue that any religion, but that of the Bible, 
ever attempted to set up its claims by the cre- 
dentials of miracles, this is utter trifling. After 
all the metaphysical parade to which we have been 
attending; are we brought to this, that, because 
some men have been knaves and fools, therefore all 
must be such ? Can we believe in the sincerity of 
none, because hypocrites have been many ? Must 
we refuse belief in any accounts of physical phe- 
nomena, because men in all ages have been im- 
posed on by ridiculous accounts of such tilings? 
Must we decline accepting any notes issued by our 



LECTURE V. 193 

banks, because men have so often been imposed on 
by counterfeit currency ? On the contrary, counter- 
feit currency is j^ositive proof that there is such a 
thing as a sound and honest currency. And in 
like manner, the fact of spurious pretensions to 
miracles, so far from being a reason for rejecting 
all accounts of miracles, is a strong presumptive 
proof that some of them are true. An argument 
which finds itself constrained to seek refuge under 
the shadow of such a position as this, must indeed 
have been reduced to an extremity. 

We have dwelt on this desperate effort of the 
most noted and acute sceptic of modern times, 
much longer than was called for by any thing either 
difficult or important in itself, because it affords a 
very strong presumptive proof of the impossibility, 
by any force of talent or skilfulness of manoeuvre, 
of breaking the solid mass of testimony by which 
the miracles of the gospel are defended. Such a 
mind, as that of the historian of England, would 
never have descended to the absurdity of denying 
the credibility of any testimony in proof of a mira- 
cle, had it not been that all his efforts to pick a 
flaw in the testimony of those of Christianity had 
utterly failed. Show me a man endeavouring to 
pick his way through the stone wall of a prison, 
and I need not be told that he is shut up, and has 
depaired of escape by the door. 

The pains which all sceptics have taken to escape 
from being shut up to the faith of Christ, adopting 
every other conceivable method than the one simple 
25 



194 



LECTURE V. 



and equitable plan of refuting the direct evidences 
of Christianity, should be considered unecjuivocable 
proof that there is a force in those evidences which 
their enemies dare not encounter face to face — 
something that persuades the bold champion of infi- 
delity that in this warfare, '' discretion is the better 
part of valour. ^^ 

But we cannot relinquish this division of our 
lecture, without pausing to draw a lesson from the 
scepticism of Hume. That he was a learned and 
very ingenious writer none can deny. That he was 
much more amiable and less unexemplary in his tem- 
per and habits than infidel champions generally are, 
we have no disposition to question. But these com- 
mendations only render his case the more affecting, 
and his insidious sophistry the more dangerous. 
The pride of reason was his master. The praise 
of a philosopher was his idol ; to doubt what others 
believed, his habitual tendency ; to maintain a pa- 
radox against the world, his prevailing ambition. 
Under the influence of these dispositions, the very 
fact that the religion of Christ was a revelation, 
requiring him to sit at its feet and learn, instead of a 
theory, flattering the sufficiency of his own powers 
to discover truth, was its condemnation. The more 
it possessed the sanction of ages and of the greatest 
minds, the more did it rouse him to its rejection. 
The imposing multitude and weight of its evidences 
were the strongest stimulants of his unbelief He 
first denied the miracles of the gospel, and then 



LECTURE V. 195 

set his wits to contrive some grand argument by 
which all the testimony in their favour might be 
undermined. He reasoned himself almost out of 
his own existence, and surrounded himself with 
impenetrable darkness. The present was all con- 
tradiction, the future all " an enigma," to his mind. 
Poor, unhappy, philosopher ! How little his learn- 
ing could do in the search of truth, for want of hu- 
mility ! How easily can all human knowledge, and 
all mortal wisdom, become foolishness, when the 
wise man leans to his own understanding, instead 
of acknowledging and seeking God in all his ways ! 
That Hume was accustomed to pray for guidance 
in his investigations of truth, it is impossible to 
suppose. The great fountain of light being thus 
denied, God gave him up to the devices and desires 
of his own heart. Verily, " He taketh the wise in 
their own craftiness." Thus, most justly, did our phi- 
losopher meet with darkness in the day-time, and was 
permitted to grope in the noonday as in the night. 
One just view of himself as a sinner would have 
refuted and broke up his whole system of proud 
unbelief I have known a good deal, by expe- 
rience, of the conflict which infidels maintain be- 
hind the entrenchments of Hume and other cham- 
pions of their cause ; I have known also something, 
personally, of conversions among such people ; and 
it has often astonished me to see how immediately 
a whole system of well jointed infidelity tumbles 
to pieces ; how entirely the most darling argument 



196 LECTURE V. 

against the gospel is changed into folly, and given 
to the winds, as soon as one realizes that he is a 
sinner, and must stand before God in judgment. 

IV. Let us pass to our fourth proposition. The 
testimony in proof of the miracles of the gosjjel has 
not diminished in force by the increase of age. It is 
not an uncommon idea that the transmission of re- 
mote events, by successive testimony, from genera- 
tion to generation, weakens their evidence in pro- 
portion to the time. It is supposed, that had we 
lived in the fourth instead of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, we should have possessed the testimonial evi- 
dence of the christian miracles in much greater 
force than it is now enjoyed. But we deny that 
there is any reason for this supposition. Mere oral 
tradition must weaken with age. But written tes- 
timony cannot suffer loss as long as the genuine- 
ness of the document containing it is unimpaired, 
and the character of the witnesses is substantiated. 
For example : suppose it be recorded on the mi- 
nutes of the Young Men's Society of New York, 
that on the 13th day of January, 1832, this lecture 
was delivered to its members, on the Evidences of 
Christianity , and those minutes be laid up among 
its records ; and tlie society exist from generation 
to generation, keeping a regular accoimt of its 
transactions, for 400 years ; and at the end of that 
time, some one, searching into its early papers, should 
read the minutes of the aboA^e event ; the evidence 
of the fact would be considered as conclusive, as if, 



LECTURE V. 197 

instead of 400 years, only 50 had elapsed since its 
occurrence. The event would be as certain as the 
genuineness of the record, and would have no refe- 
rence to the age of either. Let the society continue 
1000 years, and its records being still preserved 
uncorrupted, the evidence will remain undimi- 
nished. We rely upon the testimony in proof of 
the inva^on of Britain by Julius Ctcsar, or of Italy 
by Hannibal, with quite as much confidence as we 
read of the wars of Charles the First in England, 
And if our present accounts of those widely re- 
mote events shall be preserved to the end of the 
world, the confidence of our posterity at that time 
in their historical correctness, caieris paribus, will 
be as complete as ours. Indeed, it is only with re- 
gard to the facts related in the Bible that men ever 
talk of any diminution, by the lapse of years, in 
the credibility of testimony. But with how little 
reason is evident when you remember that a mat- 
ter of historical fact is of the same nature in regard 
to testimony, whether it be found between the co- 
vers of the Bible, or those of a Roman historian. 
For precisely the same reason that the event of 
this lecture, recorded in the minutes of the Young 
Men's Society, would retain its evidence unim- 
paired as long as the Society and its minutes 
should exist together, does the testimony to the 
great events of primitive Christianity continue to 
this day unabated.* 

* Gregory's Letters. 



198 LECTURE V. 

The christian church is also a society which was 
in existence when the events recorded in its scrip- 
tures occurred. Its principal institutions are 
founded upon them. Our New Testament books 
are its records, which, like those of any other in- 
stitution of past ages, have been handed down 
from generation to generation. The members of 
the christian church have died from age to age, 
but the church, the society, the living keeper of 
these records, the librarian of the scriptures, has 
never died. The passing away of the several indi- 
viduals who, since the commencement of Chris- 
tianity, have belonged to this society, has no more 
to do with the permanence of the institution itself, 
than have the rapid changes in the particles of the 
human body, with the permanence of the man. 
There is a personal identity in the midst of conti- 
nual change. The man of seventy is the very iden- 
tical man that he was at twenty, though many 
times have the particles composing his body been 
entirely changed. Thus the christian church in 
her nineteenth century is the same identical society 
that existed under that name in the days of the 
apostles, though so many generations of members 
have lived and died. She is as capable of remem- 
bering the events of her youth, as we are of remem- 
bering the events of ours. The records made by 
her members in testimony of those events, and in 
the age of their occurrences, having been preserved 
in her possession with the greatest vigilance and 
the most zealous attachment, are as certain cvi- 



LECTURE V. 199 

dence at present, as when they were written, of the 
facts related therein. She has been reading those 
records in her places of worship, in all parts of the 
world, ever since they were written; and she knows 
as well that they have preserved their personal 
identity, and, in all important respects, their un- 
corrupt, unmutilated character, as any of us can 
know that our family bibles are the same now as 
when they were purchased. Thus, I tliink, we are 
warranted in considering our proposition sustained, 
that the testimony in 'proof of the miracles of the 
gospel has not diminished in force by the increase 
of age* 

V. We proceed to our last proposition, that^ in 
being called to exami7ie the credibility of the gospel 
miracles by the evidence of testimony, ive have a spe- 
cial advantage over those ivho ivere present to try 
them by the evidence of their senses. I do not mean 
that the evidence of the senses was not the best for 
the primitive age of the gospel. The circumstances 
of the primitive teachers demanded it. The uni- 
versal darkness of the world rendered it necessary. 
Nor do I mean that testimony is ever more conclu- 
sive than sense. I mean precisely what the Sa- 
viour said to Thomas, who, refusing to believe on 
the assurance of the other disciples that they had 
seen Jesus risen from the dead, required the evi- 
dence of his own sight and touch to convince him. 
" Thomas (said the Lord), because thou hast seen 

* Wilson's Lectures. 



200 LECTURE r. 

me thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have 
not seen, yet have believed." Here it is implied that 
they who believe the miracle of Christ's resurrec- 
tion on the strength of testimony, have a blessing 
beyond those whose conviction came by sight. This 
will appear from the consideration, that evidence 
obtained by investigation, and appreciated by re- 
flection, is more consistent with the state of proba- 
tion, and of moral discipline and respon.sibility in 
which we are placed, than evidence forced upon us 
by the involuntary agency of the senses. 

We are under trial and discipline, as well as to our 
miderstanding, as our conduct. We are responsible 
as well for what we believe, as what we do. Pre- 
cisely the same causes that would persuade a man 
to immoral practice, may persuade him to immoral 
principle. The same disposition that would induce 
him to disobey the precepts, may lead him to deny 
the doctrines and evidences of the gospel. It is 
therefore his trial, in part, whether in forming his 
opinion of religious truth, he will so resist evil 
example and prejudice, and so deny himself the 
influence of all sinful inclinations and partialities, 
as to enter with honest candour upon the investi- 
gation of what he ought to believe and do, with 
a full determination to embrace the truth wher- 
ever it may appear. Now, with the nature and 
responsibility of this probationary condition, the 
evidence of testimony in proof of the christian 
miracles is specially consistent. Did those mira- 
cles appear before us, as once for special reasons 



LECTURE V. 201 

they did before multitudes, forcibly arresting our 
senses ; not only compelling attention, but almost 
compelling submission, by the palpable and ama- 
zing evidences attending them ; it is evident that 
there would remain comparatively but little room 
for any freedom of mind or will ; and consequently 
for any moral probation. Liberty of will and of 
decision would be suspended in proportion to the 
degree in which the senses should be directly and 
impressively addressed. But the miracles of the 
gospel addressing, not our senses, but our minds, 
through the medium of testimony, possess a degree 
of evidence which, while amply sufficient to sa- 
tisfy all who examine it with suitable impartiality, 
is not so overcoming but that one may reject it, if 
he choose ; not so irresistible, but that persons of 
indolence and indifference, or of pride and preju- 
dice — persons who examine to refute it, more than 
to ascertain its truth, or whose habits and disposi- 
tions set them in direct opposition to the holiness 
of the gospel — may receive their reward in being 
allowed to continue unconvinced. They are thus 
dealt with in a way peculiarly consistent with their 
character as moral and accountable agents. 

The exercise of an active solicitude for the dis- 
covery of truth thus presented, and of a fair, im- 
partial consideration of its evidence before convic- 
tion, is as truly an exercise of morality ; as much 
an act of moral discipline and of a correct temper 
of mind, as a correct religious practice would be in 
one already convinced. It is also as really an ex- 
26 



202 LECTURE V. 

hibition of immorality and dissoluteness to manifest 
a spirit of indifference, or of prejudice, or aversion, 
in relation to a matter of such infinite importance, 
as if one should display the same spirit in regard 
to the most necessary duties of moral living. 
" Thus, that religion is not intuitively true, but a 
matter of deduction and inference ; that a convic- 
tion of its truth is not forced upon every one, but 
is left to be by some collected with a heedful at- 
tention to premises ; this as much constitutes reli- 
gious probation ; as much affords opportunity for 
right and wrong behaviour, as any thing what- 
ever."* It tests the heart of the inquirer. 

But to illustrate our doctrine, take the case of 
one who is disposed to put religion away from 
him ; who comes to its evidences with a decided 
wish that it may appear untrue, and examines 
them under strong aversions and prejudices. Sup- 
pose him suddenly arrested by the sight of a mira- 
cle wrought in his presence, so that in spite of all 
his dislikes and evil dispositions, he cannot escape 
believing. Take then the case of another, bearing 
a precisely similar character, who, having no evi- 
dence but that of testimony, is obliged, either to 
discipline his mind into a frame for candid, honest 
investigation ; or else hazard the consequences of 
an inquiry conducted under the influence of habits 
and tempers directly hostile to the clear view and 
impartial acknowledgment of truth. Suppose him 

* Butler's Analogy, p. ii. c. vi. 



LECTURE V. 203 

to choose the latter alternative, and that he is per- 
mitted, ill reward for this voluntary perversion of 
his judgment, to continue in unbelief. I ask which 
of these individuals is treated in a way most con- 
sistent with his condition as a moral and accounta- 
ble agent 1* 

* " If (says Butler) there are any persons who never set them- 
selves heartily and in earnest to be informed in religion ; if there 
are any who secretly wish it may not prove true, and are less at- 
tentive to evidence than to difficulties, and more to objections than 
to what is said in answer to them — these persons will scarce be 
thought in a likely way of seeing the evidence of religion, though 
it were most certainly true, and capable of being ever so fully 
proved. If any accustom themselves to consider this subject 
usually in the way of mirth, or sport ; if they attend to forms and 
representations, and inadequate manners of expression, instead of 
the real things intended by them, (for signs often can be no more 
than inadequately expressive" of the things signified), or if they sub- 
stitute human errors in the room of divine truth — why may not all, 
or any of these things, hinder some men from seeing that evidence 
whifch really is seen by others, as a like turn of mind, with respect 
to matters of common speculation and practice, does, we find by 
experience, hinder them from attaining that knowledge and right 
understanding, in matters of common speculation and practice, 
which more fair and attentive minds can attain to ? And in gene- 
ral, levity, carelessness, passion, and prejudice, do hinder us from 
being rightly informed with respect to common things ; and they 
may in like manner, s-nd perhaps in some farther providential man- 
ner, with respect to moral and rehgious subjects ; may hinder evi- 
dence from being laid before us, and from being seen when it is. 
The scripture does declare that every one shall not understand. 
And it makes no difference by what providential conduct this 
comes to pass ; whether the evidence of Christianity was originally 
and with design, put, and left, so that those who are desirous of 



204 



LECTURE V, 



But besides the greater adaptation to a proba- 
tionary state, there is greater spiritual profit in the 
way by which we of latter days must arrive at the 
truth of the miracles of the gospel. Take the case 
of two Christians ; let one be a disciple of these 
days, and the other, Thomas, one of the apostles. 
They are equally convinced of the Saviour's resur- 
rection, but by different means ; Thomas, by the 
force of sight and touch ; the other, by a careful, 
honest examination of the testimony we now pos- 
sess. Which, in becoming a disciple, expressed the 
greater love of the truth ? Which, the greater rea- 
diness to receive and submit to it 7 Thomas had 
only to open his eyes, and reach forth his hand; 
the other pursued a course of candid, patient, se- 
rious reflection. Thomas required for his convic- 
tion that the Saviour should stand before him, and 
say : " Be not faithless, but believing." The other 
went forth seeking " the truth as it is in Jesus," 
through all the reasoning and objections; all the 
patient consideration and study, which circum- 
stances placed in his way, not demanding to be 
constrained by the arrest of his senses, but prepared 
to submit as soon as the testimony was sufiicient. 
Now it is plain that in this case there is a simpli- 
city of heart ; a love of truth ; a candour in its 

evading moral obligations, should not see it, and that honest 
minded persons should ; or whether it comes to pass by an}' other 
means." 

Butler's Analogy, p ii c vi. 



LECTURE V. 205 

pursuit, and a willingness to bow to it at all cost, 
such as are by no means implied in the conviction 
of Thomas. It is plain, also, that the moral dis- 
cipline to which the former was subjected — and the 
state of mind involved in the mode by which he 
came at the truth, are far more conducive to his 
happiness, and afford a much higher promise of 
steadfast and elevated attachment to the service of 
the truth, than if, like Thomas, it could be said of 
him : " Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed." 
So that we may now acknowledge the truth of 
those w^ords, " Blessed are they that have not seen, 
and yet have believed ;" and may repeat our propo- 
sition, that in having to try the credibility of the 
gosinl miracles by the evidence of testimony, ice are 
more favourably situated, in a very important sense, 
than had we been present to judge them by the evidence 
of our senses* 

From the whole truth exhibited in this lecture, 
we are called to adore the wisdom of God. " His 
ways are not as our ways ; neither his thoughts as 
our thoughts." Why, in such a momentous busi- 
ness as that of religion (demands some weak mor- 
tal), was not truth rendered intuitively certain, so 
that the most careless could not mistake ? Why 
(asks another) should such tremendous matters be 
necessarily settled by investigation and argument ; 
by the weight of testimony, and the records of dis- 
tant ages ; instead of bringing them at once to the 

* See Saurin, on Obscure Faith. 



206 LECTURE V. 

test of every one's experience ? " Shew us a sign /" 
is still the requisition of multitudes, who, if they 
must believe, desire to do it without trouble ; but 
would much rather be excused from both. God is 
infinitely wiser. " He knoweth whereof we are 
made." He has dignified us with reason, as well 
as sense ; and made us capable of learning by re- 
flection and study, as well as of knowing by instinct 
and necessity. He deals with us, as rational beings. 
He makes us responsible for the use of our minds, 
as well as of our limbs. He requires the obedience 
of the will, the labour of our thoughts, and the 
pains-taking of all our intellectual and moral fa- 
culties, in order that we may know and serve him 
as becometh our natures. To this end. He has so 
constructed religion, and delivered to us its evi- 
dences, that whoever is sufficiently interested in 
His will to bestow his best thoughts, and affec- 
tions, and efforts, upon the work of its discovery, 
truly desirous of knowing that he may embrace it, 
and earnestly looking up to God for protection 
against prejudice, and for guidance in the way of 
light, will certainly come to the knowledge of the 
truth, whatever the grade of his intellect, and will 
arrive at it by a way most wisely adapted to make 
him hold fast and obey it. On the other hand, God 
has so framed the gospel, and set before us its cre- 
dentials, that whether one will believe or not, is 
left to his free and voluntary choice ; his proba- 
tionary character is inviolate ; his reason and his 
will are perfectly responsible. If he desire not to 



LECTURE V. 207 

believe ; if his heart revolt against the gospel on 
account of the humility, and repentance, and holi- 
ness, and self-denial, it demands of him ; if he study- 
its nature and evidence carelessly, proudly, and 
partially ; if he consult more the objector than the 
advocate, and try to invent reasons for unbelief 
more than arguments for the contrary ; if he love 
vice, and would retain his sins ; he may easily con- 
vince himself against the claims of the gospel. God 
has left unclosed many avenues by which such a 
man may escape into infidelity. He is wisely pu- 
nished by being permitted to go in thereat. God 
may justly take him at his word, and condemn him 
to the darkness and final misery of rejecting what 
he investigated so unjustly. It is the wisdom of 
God that His truth does not, in offering conviction 
to such examiners, afford, at the same time, encou- 
ragement to such unworthiness. 



EVIJ3ENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE VI 



MIRACLES. 



Our last lecture was occupied in settling certain 
preliminaries, for the purpose of being enabled, in 
this, to enter directly upon the work of weighing 
the testimony to the miracles of Christ and his 
apostles. The question to which we now proceed 
may be stated thus : The Lord Jesus Christ claimed 
to be received as a teacher, come from God for the 
purpose of communicating a divine revelation. 
His apostles claimed to be received as his inspired 
and divinely commissioned agents in publishing 
that revelation. All appealed to miracles, as the 
credentials of their embassy. None can deny that 
such credentials, plainly ascertained, are certain 
27 



210 



LECTURE VI. 



proof of the sanction of God. The appeal to 
them is, therefore, unquestionably fair. The point, 
then, which remains to be determined, is : Have we 
satisfactory evidence that genuine miracles ivere 
icrought by the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles ? 

In answer to this question, we might proceed on 
a plan of argument which would occupy but a 
few moments. In the lecture preceding the last, 
we ascertained the credibility of the gospel his- 
tory ; in other words, that we have the strongest 
reason to rely implicitly on the narratives contained 
therein, as to all matters of fact. Now it is there 
related, that on a certain occasion our Saviour was 
followed by five thousand men, into a desert place, 
where they were enhungered — that all the food in 
his possession was five barley loaves, and a few small 
fishes- — that of these he commanded his disciples to 
distribute to the multitude ; and after they had all 
eaten and were filled, the fragments remaining 
were much more, in quantity, than the original 
loaves and fishes. These are plain statements, re- 
lated in the gospel as unquestionable facts. The 
gospel history being credible, they must be true. 
To call that a credible history, and then suppose it 
unworthy of reliance in such prominent particu- 
lars, would be absurd. But these facts constitute 
a miracle. There must have been a miraculous 
multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Conse- 
quently, in having proved the credibility of the 
gospel history, we have proved that in this case a 
miracle was wrought. 



LECTURE Vr. 211 

Thus might we proceed with regard to a great 
variety of other statements, as to the works of 
Christ and his apostles ; and I fully iDelieve that, in 
strict justice, nothing more ought to l3e required in 
evidence of the gospel miracles, than what has 
been already adduced in proof of the credibility of 
the narratives contained in the New Testament. 
But inasmuch as our object is not merely to exhi- 
bit a sound and conclusive argument, such as ought 
to satisfy every mind, but so to present the great 
variety and abundance of proof in support of 
Christianity, as that no attentive candid mind can 
help being satisfied, we will adopt a broader plan. 

Before proceeding any further, let it be re- 
marked, that the religion of the Bible is the only 07ie 
ivhich, in its first introduction, ajjpealed to miracles 
for evidence of the divine authority of its teachers. 
Under the religion of the Bible I include the dis- 
pensation of Moses and that of Christ, as exhi- 
biting essentially the same religion ; though more 
largely and clearly revealed under the latter than 
under the former. Both dispensations were intro- 
duced and sanctioned by miracles. Now, I know, 
it is a common supposition, that the same mode of 
attestation was resorted to by all the false religions 
that ever gained acceptance in the world ; and that 
this was the chief cause of their ascendancy in the 
public mind. But the truth is, that no religion, 
except that of the Bible, was ever set up by ap- 
peal to miracles as the credentials of its founder. 
We speak of miracles which are capable of being 



212 LECTURE vr, 

witnessed and investigated by others. It is not as- 
serted that many wonderful things, of a miraculous 
nature, have not been pretended and boasted 
among the disciples of sundry false religions. The 
annals of paganism abound with relations of au- 
guries, and oracles, and apparitions. Many mira- 
culous, not to say ridiculous, marvels are asserted 
of Mohammed. But the remark is applicable to 
all of these things, and is of great importance in 
connection with our present object, that they were 
asserted not as proofs of religions appealing to 
them for credentials, but only as apioendages of 
religions already set up, and received on considera- 
tions entirely independent of their truth or false- 
hood. It was the credit and influence of the esta- 
blished religion which gave them all their cur- 
rency; and not their evidence which established 
the religion with which they were respectively 
connected. The prodigies of heathenism, unac- 
companied as they are by any pretence of proof, 
had no manner of reference to the setting up of a 
new system of faith, or of a teacher pretending to 
a divine connuission. Miraculous stories were pub- 
lished of Mohammed by writers of six and eight 
centuries after his death ; but no such pretensions 
were made by himself. On the contrary, he ex- 
pressly disclaimed miraculous powers. In the Ko- 
ran it is written of him : " Nothing hindered us 
from sending thee icith miracles, except that the 
former nations have charged them witli imposture.''^ 
Again : " They say, unless a sign be sent down unto 



LECTURE VI, 213 

him from his Loi'd, ice will not believe ; answer , signs 
are in the power of God alone, and I am no more 
than a jnihlic pi^eacher. Is it not sufficient for them 
that we have sent down unto them the hook of the 
Koran, to be read unto them V We grant that Mo- 
hammed did give out to the credulity of his fol- 
lowers a few marvellous doings; but they were 
such as cannot be included under the title of sen- 
sible miracles, inasmuch as he always took the dis- 
creet precaution of having no witness but himself, 
entirely avoiding the hazardous experiment of 
resting the evidence of his divine mission upon the 
testimony of any eyes more disinterested than his 
own. 

But how can it be accounted for, that one of 
such high pretensions — aware, as he was, of the 
success which miracles had obtained for the gospel 
in times past — should have neglected so powerful 
a means of proselyting the world ? It was not for 
want of importunity on the part of others ; for his 
opposers were constantly teazing him with their 
demands on this head. It was not because he could 
anticipate no favourable influence from a well sus- 
tained pretension to miracles ; for his adversaries 
assured him, even by oaths, that on the evidence of 
one such sign they would own his claims. Nor 
was it that Mohammed was too honest. The mar- 
vellous tales of the nocturnal visits of Gabriel ; of 
his own night-journey; and of the transmission, 
from time to time, of parcels of the uncreated 
book from heaven prove, what this impostor was 



214 



LECTURE VI. 



capable of attempting, when allured by a prospect 
of success. Nor was it that this unequalled ad- 
venturer was deficient in an unusual degree of craft 
and address for the management of bold impos- 
ture. His whole biography would refute such an 
opinion. Nor was it that he was surrounded with 
a people peculiarly prepared, by knowledge and 
cultivated discernment, for the detection of such 
frauds. The age was one of the darkest in the 
annals of man, and his country one of the darkest 
of that age. Nor could it have been that his cause 
needed no such auxiliary ; for the fruits of his la- 
bour, during the first three years, were only four- 
teen disciples ; and in ten years his cause had not 
advanced beyond, and had made but little progress 
within, the walls of Mecca. Then if Mohammed 
was neither too honest to attempt the forgery of 
miracles, nor too unskilful to manage it with cun- 
ning and address ; if his cause needed it, and his 
enemies demanded it, and the barbarity of the peo- 
ple and age favoured it; no earthly reason can be 
given for his having disclaimed the attempt, except 
that he considered it too difficult and hazardous ; 
too certain of detection, even among a barbarous, 
credulous, and superstitious race. The religion of 
the Bible is the only one that ever ventured on 
such evidence in proof of divine original. This 
single fact, united with the w^ell known truth that, 
however her miracles may have been derided and 
suspected by enemies, none ever pretended to have 
discovered an imposition, is strong presumptive evi- 



LECTURE VI. 215 

(lence that they had a reality which no human de- 
vice could rival — a truth which no human scrutiny 
could alarm. 

In coming, therefore, to our present examination, 
w^e should feel that the religion of the Bible stands 
alone, not only as to the wisdom and grandeur of 
her communications, but equally so as to the bold- 
ness of her evidence ; the sublimity of her creden- 
tials ; and the godlike dignity with which she 
cometh to the light, that her deeds " may be made 
manifest that they are wrought in God." 

We proceed to the testimony connected with the 
miracles of Christ. 

1. We observe, in the first place, that supposing 
the works related of the Lord Jesus to have ac- 
tually occurred, many of them must have been ge- 
nu'me mimcles. They cannot be ascribed to natu- 
ral causes. If five thousand men were fed, when 
all the food to feed them with, prior to the act of 
Jesus, was a few loaves and fishes ; if the centu- 
rion's servant was healed, at the word of Jesus, 
while the latter was no where within the sight, or 
hearing, or knowledge, of that servant ; if the man 
born blind was made to see by no other physical 
act than that of Jesus putting clay on his eyes, and 
his washing it off in the pool of Siloam ; if Laza- 
rus, having been dead four days, did come forth 
from the sepulchre, at the word of Jesus ; then we 
have facts for which no natural causes can account. 
They are unquestionable miracles, and we are 
forced to the alternative of either denying, in the 



216 LECTURE VI. 

face of all evidence, the truth of the statements 
contained in the gospel history ; or else acknow^- 
ledging that miracles, in the fullest sense, were 
wrought at the word of Christ. 

II. The miracles of Christ were such as could at 
once be brought to the test of the senses. It is an 
essential requisite to a rational belief in miracu- 
lous agency, that one be presented with facts of 
such a nature as that the senses of those present 
could easily decide upon their reality and their su- 
pernatural character. Now, that the senses of the 
most ignorant were as competent as those of the 
most learned ; that the senses of any man or wo- 
man in Judea were perfectly competent to decide 
whether the son of the widow of Nain, having been 
dead and carried out to be buried, did arise and 
sit up at the word of Christ, and continue there- 
after to reside, a living man, in Nain; that any 
one's senses were perfectly competent to judge 
whether thousands of men were fed with a few 
loaves and fishes, or the blind received their sight, 
or the lepers were cleansed, or those, notoriously 
lame from their birth, were enabled to walk at the 
bidding of Christ, it would be folly to doubt. 

III. The miracles of Christ were performed for 
the most part in tlic most jniblic manner. It is the 
detracting circumstance of all the most plausible 
pretensions to miracles, exclusive of those of the 
scriptures, that they were done in a corner, or in the 
presence only of those already inclined to believe 
them, or under favour of circumstances calculated 



LECTURE VI. 217 

to prevent a free examination. Just the contrary 
is the fact with regard to a great portion of the 
wonderful works of Christ. Not only were they 
accessible to the senses of witnesses ; but to the 
senses of multitudes of witnesses, of witnesses of 
the most eager and violent enmity to the claims of 
Jesus ; witnesses of all ranks and classes in society 
— the learned and mighty, as well as the ignorant 
and feeble — the scribes and Pharisees, the priest 
and the centurion, as well as the publicans and 
beggars. It was in the synagogues, in the streets, 
in the open fields, surrounded by thousands — in the 
midst of Jerusalem, and at the time of the great 
annual festival, when an immense concourse of 
Jews, from all parts of the world , crowded the holy 
city, that almost all of the mighty works of Jesus 
were performed. In this way, as in other ways, 
he could say to his persecutors, " / spake openly to 
the iDorldJ^ 

His miracles were wrought upon subjects so nu- 
merous, in so many places, and in such circum- 
stances, as that none could suspect the cases to 
have been previously selected and prepared. What 
the condition of the subject had been before the 
miracle, thousands knew, and all could easily as- 
certain. What it was, for a long time after the 
miracle, was equally notorious. Those who were 
cured of blindness, or leprosy, or lameness, or palsy, 
or who had been raised from the dead, did not die 
immediately after, nor hide themselves from public 
inspection ; but continued to go in and out among 
28 



218 LECTURE VI. 

the people, as living examples of the power of 
Christ. The grave of Lazarus was surrounded 
with unbelieving Jews. They saw him come forth. 
They had as much opportunity, as disposition, to 
find out whether it was Lazarus or some one else ; 
whether the man was alive, or only 2'^''^ ^tending to 
be alive. Instead of being immediately snatched 
from their view, he was seated some time after as 
one of the guests at a supper, in Bethany ; and so 
well known was the fact, that " much people of 
the Jews" came to the place to have a sight of one 
who had been raised from the dead. ^' The chief 
priests consulted that they might put him to death, 
because that, by reason of him, many of the Jews 
went away and believed on Jesus." 

IV. The miracles of Christ and his apostles were 
very numerous^ and of great variety. It has been 
a characteristic of all cases of imposture, that the 
wonderful works pretended to were but few in 
number, and of great sameness. The sect of the 
Jansenists, in the church of Rome, pretended to 
miracles at the tomb, and by the posthumous in- 
tercessions, of the Abbe Paris, But, besides the 
want of evidence that any of the facts recorded 
were miraculous, they were neither numerous nor 
various. Could this be said of the works of Christ, 
it would deprive them of one of the most palpable 
evidences of the fearless integrity in which they 
were wrought. But his history is full of miracu- 
lous works. Besides about forty that are related 
at large, we frequently meet with such accounts 



LECTURE VI. 219 

as this : " His fame went throughout all Syria, and 
they brought unto him all sick j^eople that were taken 
with divers diseases and torments, and those ivhich 
ivere possessed with devils, and those which icere lu- 
natic, and those that had the jialsy, and he healed 
them" Similar declarations are made as to the 
miracles of the apostles. As, for example, in Acts, 
V. 16 : " There came also a multitude out of the 
cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick 
folks, and them which were vexed with unclean 
spirits ; and they were healed every one." 

But the miracles of the Saviour and his apostles 
were also of great variety. It was not disease of 
one or two classes only that Jesus removed, but 
disease of all kinds. Not diseases only, but all 
kinds of human calamity, departed at his will. 
Even death surrendered his captives at his com- 
mand. The blind from their birth ; the hopeless 
leper ; those that were lame from the womb ; 
those that had long been bowed down v^ath in- 
firmity ; the withered, the palsied, the insane — all 
were alike delivered of their affliction. On two 
occasions, thousands were fed with a mere pittance 
of food. Thrice, beside the instance of his own 
resurrection, did Jesus raise the dead. A corre- 
sponding variety characterizes the works of his 
apostles. 

V. It is a matter of great importance to remark, 
that amidst all this variety, the success in every in- 
stance was instantaneous and complete. The sick 
were perfectly healed. The deaf, and blind, and 



220 



LECTURE VI. 



lame, were perfectly delivered from their infirmi- 
ties; the leper was entirely cleansed; the dead 
arose, not merely to life, but to health and strength. 
These effects were as immediate as they were per- 
fect. No sooner was the voice spoken, or the 
thing done that was required of the applicant, than 
all was finished. Did Jesus say, " Let there be 
light 7" there was light ; let there be health ? there 
was health. He left no time for second causes to 
operate — no room for human means to intervene. 
" He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and 
it stood fast." 

VI. There is no evidence of an attempt, on the 
part of Christ or his apostles, to perform a miracle 
in which they were accused of having failed. It 
is notoriously true of the wonderful works ascribed 
to the tomb of the Abbe Paris, for example, that 
the cases in which any beneficial effects resulted 
to the applicants were very inconsiderable in num- 
ber, compared with those in which there was a 
manifest and total failure. But although the mi- 
nistry of Christ lasted between three and four 
years, during which he was continually resorted 
to by multitudes, with a great variety of cases, 
seeking his miraculous aid ; and although the mi- 
nistry of his apostles continued many years longer, 
during which time they are said to have been at- 
tested by " divers miracles," no case is mentioned 
in which an attempt was unsuccessful, or in which 
an applicant was denied. The language of the 
history in relation to the multitudes that applied 



LECTURE VI. 221 

to Christ is continually, "Ae healed them all." 
The enemies of the gospel, who were eyewitnesses 
of these applicants, did never maintain that the 
power of Christ, or of his disciples, was exerted 
unsuccessfully in a single instance. Had such an 
event taken place, would they not have discovered 
it ? Had they discovered it, would they not have 
proclaimed it far and wide? Would any of the 
books, written against Christianity in the first cen- 
turies, have omitted so important a fact 7 The to- 
tal absence of all insinuation of such a thing, in 
the whole controversy between the primitive Chris- 
tians and their adversaries, is certain evidence that 
an unsuccessful attempt was never made, and that 
an unsuccessful applicant was not known. 

Now, on the supposition that the miraculous 
doings recorded in the gospel were all a cheat, 
ichat a miracle is here ! Think of the multitude of 
cases on which the powers of the Saviour and his 
disciples were tested. Think of the great variety 
of places and circumstances in which they were 
put to the test. Think of the many who operated 
in this way ; and that they did so, not while to- 
gether to help one another, but frequently when 
they were widely scattered over the earth. Think, 
also, that the multitude of cases were extemiiora- 
neous — incapable of being anticipated or prepared 
for; that the effects were ms ton to/^eous ; that they 
were 2^erfect — the lame, and blind, and dumb, and 
withered, being blessed, not only immediately^ but 
perfectly; so that nothing remained but to praise 



222 LECTURE VI, 

God. Now, that all was contrivance, and impos- 
ture, and accident, and yet not an enemy ever de- 
tected an instance of failure ; that the machinery 
was never out of place, out of time, or out of or- 
der; that it was equally successful in all cases, 
equally ready at all seasons, always invisible, yet 
always at hand, and always instantaneously ef- 
fectual — what a miracle! Who is the man of 
weak credulity ? — the believer or the infidel ? 

VII. The length of time, during u-hich the Sa- 
viour and his apostles professed to perform miracles, 
should be specially considered. Seventy years 
elapsed between the commencement of the minis- 
try of Christ and the death of the last of the apos- 
tles. During all this interval, the miraculous gifts, 
in question, were exercised. Now, as every repeti- 
tion in case of imposture multiplies the dangers of 
detection, and every extension of time makes it the 
more difficult to keep up the confederated plan, it 
is no inconsiderable evidence of the genuineness of 
the miracles of the gospel, that they continued to 
be wrought and inspected during a period of so 
many years, and yet no instance of a failure or of 
deception was ever discovered by those fierce and 
untiring enemies with which Christianity was 
always surrounded. 

This consideration is the more important when 
you reflect that the miracles were not confined 
to one or two places ; were not wrought in little vil- 
lages, or among the poor and ignorant only — but 
that the scenes of most of them were in the chief 



LECTURE VI. 223 

cities of the Roman empire. Instead of remain- 
ing together in one place, or moving together wher- 
ever they desired to produce an impression, and 
then confining themselves to such places as might 
be most easily deceived ; the apostles, with singular 
folly, on the supposition that they were confede- 
rated for an imposture, separated to all parts of the 
world. They went alone to the most populous, 
polished, and enlightened cities. They put them- 
selves in the most public places of those cities; 
thus making combination impossible, and rendering 
it perfectly miraculous that in these circumstances 
they should have fraudulently pretended for many 
years to work miracles in open daylight, and yet 
that no adversary discovered a single instance of 
miscarriage, or so much as one evidence of suspi- 
cious contrivance. 

VIII. We have the most perfect certainty that 
the miracles of the gospel underwent, at the time 
they were wrought, and for a long time after, the 
most rigid examination from those who had every 
opportunity of scrutinizing their character. Forged 
miracles may pass current, where power and au- 
thority, or the favourable dispositions of the people 
protect them from too close an inspection. But 
let the power of the magistrate, the authority of 
public opinion, and the partialities of those con- 
cerned, be once leagued in opposition, and the im- 
posture cannot escape. Such was the league 
against the miracles in question. Never was the 
power of the state in more perfect alliance with 



224 LECTURE VI. 

public opinion, or more zealously supported by all 
the envy, hatred, and malice, of which popular 
feeling is capable, than when it set its face against 
the gospel. Not only were these miracles exposed, 
by their great publicity, to universal examination, 
but they were of such a nature that any mind was 
capable of examining them. Not only did they 
present themselves to the wise and the great, in 
the chief places of concourse, and in the great cities 
of the world ; but they were such as necessarily 
provoked every description of scrutiny. Being per- 
formed in avowed support of a religion which could 
not be successful without destroying the whole 
hierarchy of the Jews, and advancing its victories 
over the ruins of heathenism ; they roused at once 
into united and stern opposition, all the civil power 
of the governments ; all the enmity of Jewish and 
Pagan priesthoods ; all the partialities, and preju- 
dices, and national attachments, of all people. 
The enmity of the scribes and Pharisees ; of the 
doctors, and lawyers, and priests, of the Jews, must 
have been fired with peculiar indignation. As mi- 
racles multiplied and disciples increased, the deep- 
est interest must have been awakened in relation 
to them among all classes of society. This we 
know to have been the case. Hence it is certain 
that they did not escape the most thorough exami- 
nation ; that all the ingenuity and diligence of con- 
temporaries and eyewitnesses, animated by the 
strongest motives, and favoured by every conceiva- 
ble advantage, were enlisted in the trial ; and 



LECTURE VI. 225 

this, not for a day, or a week, or a month, but as 
long as miracles were professed, and a hope of de- 
tection remained. 

IX. It is a matter deserving of special remem- 
brance, that the adversaries of the gospel were 
placed in the most favourable circumstances for a 
thorough investigation of the reality of its miracles, 
by theiy^ being imhlished and appealed to immediately 
after, and in the venj places ichere, they occurred. 
The miracles ascribed to the founder of the society 
of Jesuits are sufficiently answered by the fact that, 
during his life, and for many years after his death, 
nothing was heard of them. Those of Francis 
Xavier, one of the first disciples of Loyola, are de- 
ficient in evidence, because, having been wrought 
(as it is stated) in the far distant East, they were 
first published in the western world ; and the nar- 
ratives, if they ever reached the places to which 
they relate, could not have been known there till 
long after the opportunity of a close investigation 
had passed aw^ay, and must have been published 
among a people too indifferent to be at the pains of 
inquiring into their truth or falsehood. But the 
miracles of the gospel were published immediately 
after, and in the very places of, their occurrence. It 
is true, indeed, that the earliest gospel, that of St. 
Matthew, is not by any supposed to have been 
published earlier than the seventh or eighth year 
after the death of Christ. Supposing this to have 
been tiie first publication of the miracles, it was 
29 



226 LECTURE VI. 

sufficiently near their date to afford every reasona- 
ble opportunity of investigation. 

But we know from the gospel history, that dur- 
ing the three years of the Saviour's ministry, and 
all the while the apostles laboured, their miracles 
were notorious. The scribes and Pharisees met in 
council on the subject, Many, unable to deny 
them, ascribed them to demoniacal power. Herod, 
when he heard of them, said : " This is John the 
Baptist ; he is risen from the dead ; and therefore 
mighty works do shew forth themselves in him."* 
The fame of the miracles of Jesus, at the beginning 
of his ministry, " went throughout all Syria," so 
that multitudes, with all kinds of afflictions, flocked 
to him from all quarters to be healed, and, when 
healed, returned to publish still more widely the 
works of their deliverer.! The raising of Lazarus 
was so widely published in Bethany, where it took 
place, and in the region round about, that, in a few 
days, " much people of the Jews came, not for 
Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus 
also, whom he had raised from the dead."J When, 
at the word of Peter and John, the impotent man, 
at the gate of the temple, had been made whole, 
they immediately published the miracle on the 
spot, to the multitude of Jerusalem ; appealing to 
it in evidence of the power of their Lord. " His 
name (said they), through faith in his name, hath 
made this man strong, whom ye see and know : 

* Mat. xiv. 1 and 2. j lb. iv. 23—25. | Mm xii. 9. 



LECTURE VI. 227 

yea, the faith which is by him, hath given him this 
2)erfect soundness in the j^resence of you alir* Only 
about fifty days was Jesus risen from the dead, 
when his disciples began to proclaim every where, 
and first at Jerusalem, among those who slew him 
and had set the guard at the sepulchre, this chief 
of miracles. They appealed to it in every dis- 
course ; challenged every examination ; defied all 
contradiction. All the miracles of Christ, they de- 
clared before the very people whom they asserted 
to have witnessed them. " Ye men of Israel, hear 
these words (said Peter); Jesus of Nazareth, a man 
approved of God among you by miracles, and won- 
ders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst 
of you, as ye yourselves also knoio.^^'t How emi- 
nently this bold and immediate publication must 
have aided, as well as stimulated, the investiga- 
tion of the enemies of the gospel, furnishing those, 
who had every disposition, and all power, and all 
intelligence and cunning, ivith every opportunity 
to try the minutest circumstance, and ferret out 
every clue to the detection of imposture, I need 
not show. 

X. Now consider, who the agents were, tvhose 
works were obliged to stand such trials. Had they 
been men of learning, of power, of wealth, accus- 
tomed to any thing that was calculated to furnish 
them for the work of imposing upon mankind, the 
case would not be quite so strong. But, on the sup- 

* Acts iii. 16. t lb. ii. 22. 



228 LECTURE VI. 

position that Christ was a mere man and pretender, 
what was he or what were his apostles, by educa- 
tion or standing in society, that they should be 
qualified for such an unparalleled effort of inge- 
nuity and concealment? Is there any miracle 
more marvellous than that which is involved in 
the idea of a poor and unlearned individual of Na- 
zareth, followed by twelve obscure, unlettered 
Jews, for the most part accustomed to nothing but 
their nets and fishing-boats, having practised such 
a system of imposture, under such circumstances 
of risk and exposure, without an individual among 
their numerous enemies to discover their secret, or 
detect the deceit ? 

XI. Consider, moreover, that notwithstanding 
all that was done to entice and intimidate the early 
Christians who were eyewitnesses of what Jesus 
or his apostles wrought, none loere induced to con- 
fess themselves deceived ; oi' that they had seen any 
thing but truth in tliose miraculous gifts, by ivhich 
th,ey had been j^ersuaded to embrace the gospel. It is 
not asserted that none wiio professed to be converted 
from Judaism or paganism to Christianity, ever re- 
nounced the cause of Christ. The persecution of 
enemies was sometimes successful in forcing their 
victims to forsake the gospel, and do sacrifice to 
idols, rather than be burned at the stake, or thrown 
to wild beasts. But the case cannot be brought 
of one such unhappy deserter, whether man or 
woman, having been persuaded to bear icitness 
against the christian miracles. A convert, after 



LECTURE VI , 229 

having united himself to the apostles; been re- 
ceived to the fellowship of the church ; and become 
an agent in advancing its cause ; must have be- 
come acquainted with its secrets. He must have 
often looked behind the scenes, and had many op- 
portunities of knowing the hidden machinery by 
which the imposition, if any existed, was carried 
on. Had the evidence of contrivance and forgery 
been ever seen by the primitive christians, those 
who deserted the cause had every motive to di- 
vulge it. Their own indignation at having been 
deceived ; the rewards which they might have ex- 
pected from the enemies of Christianity, would 
have been sufficiently persuasive. That none ever 
went a step further than simply to give up the 
profession of the gospel, through fear of torture ; 
that none ever turned round upon the apostles by 
whose miracles they had been convinced, and 
charged them with fraud, is absolutely inexplica- 
ble on any other supposition than their thorough 
conviction that fraud did not exist. 

This evidence is specially strong in the case of 
Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve who al- 
ways companied with Jesus. He was the trea- 
surer of the family — admitted to every opportunity 
of knowing whatever secrets may have belonged 
to the works of Christ. That he knew what and 
ichere the imposition was, if any existed in the 
gospel miracles, cannot be doubted. That he was 
treacherous enough to betray it, is manifest from 
his having betrayed the Master himself That he 



230 LECTURE VI. 

had every inducement to do so, none can question 
w^ho knows how precious the chief priests and Pha- 
risees would have considered suth a disclosure. 
Did he come forward with any such thing ? He 
delivers up the person of Christ ; does he accuse 
his character? — deny his works? — expose his 
cause ? The Saviour is arraigned before his pow- 
erful enemies — witnesses are called. Where is Ju- 
das ? False witnesses are brought. Where is Ju- 
das 1 Has he nothing to say against him whom 
he has already sold for thirty pieces of silver? 
The enemies of Christ cannot be ignorant of the 
importance of such a witness ; nor can he be igno- 
rant of the gain that may accrue from his deliver- 
ing such testimony. But he is not there. The 
Jews never pretended to have obtained any accu- 
sation from that traitor. Not a word is spoken, in 
all the controversy with primitive adversaries, 
about the treachery of Judas as having turned to 
their advantage. On the contrary, it is written in 
the gospel history, and was never denied by those 
men, that he not only abstained from any accusa- 
tion, but in the strongest possible manner confessed 
the truth and excellence of Jesus and his cause. 
Under the stings of conscience, and in spite of the 
covetousness of his disposition, he went and deli- 
vered up the money he had received for his ini- 
quity into the hands of those who had paid it. 
Nor was this all. He was constrained to confess 
to the chief priests and elders, whose wrath he 
knew it would inflame to the uttermost, saying : 



LECTURE VI. 231 

" I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent 
blood" " And he cast down the pieces of silver in 
the templCj and departed, and ivent and hanged him- 
self."* Stronger evidence of truth and righteous- 
ness, it is impossible for any works or any cause to 
possess. 

XII. Having considered in another place the cha- 
racter of the individuals by whom the miracles of 
the gospel were performed, it is important now to 
remark that of the miracles themselves. Either 
they were real miracles or false. If false, the in- 
dividuals who performed them could not, by any 
excess of infatuation, have supposed them true. 
They must, therefore, have been the deliberate as- 
serters of a divine commission, which they knew 
had not been given them ; and the persevering ex- 
hibiters of credentials which they knew were for- 
geries. Hence it is not possible that they could 
have been honest men ; much less, good men. And 
inasmuch as they must have acted from some mo- 
tive and with some object in view, and we cannot 
suppose that such impostors would be sacrificing 
themselves merely out of a benevolent disposition 
to promote the happiness of their fellow-creatures 
and relieve their woes; it must have been some ob- 
ject of ambition or of gain which they were pur- 
suing. We do not pause now to show what perfect 
idiots they must have been to select such a scheme 
out of ambitious or pecuniary motives. But sincej 

* Mat. xxvii. 3, 4, 5, 



232 LECTURE VI. 

on the supposition that their works were fictitious, 
we can imagine no other, the question arises, how 
do these miracles correspond with the idea that the 
agents were impostors, and their motives ambitious 
or covetous ? 

Now I maintain, that considering how many and 
various are the miracles recorded in the New Tes- 
tament, in what various circumstances and by what 
various agents they were performed, and that not 
for a month or year only, but many years, in the full 
assemblages of enemies ; it would have been quite 
miraculous, supposing them false, had they been in 
every instance garnished with a concealment so 
perfect, that nothing low, or mean, or undignified — 
nothing betraying the spirit of designing, ambitious, 
or covetous men — should ever have been manifested. 
Take up the accounts of any confessedly fictitious 
miracles, in any age or country, and you will soon 
detect the hand-writing of the spirit and motives 
that produced them. But most singularly — contra- 
ry to all experience and all law, on the assumption 
that the miracles of Christ and his apostles were 
fictitious ; you discover nothing in them but what is 
entirely worthy of the majesty, holiness, justice, and 
goodness of that God, by whose power they professed 
to be wrought. The most perfect correspondence 
appears between the exalted and holy character 
and office in which the Saviour and his apostles 
claimed to be received, and the works by which 
their claim was sustained. Propriety, dignity, dis- 
interestedness, benevolence of the loveliest spirit, 



LECTURE VI. 233 

compassion of the tenderest sensibility, distin- 
guished them. Not the least trace is marked on 
them of any ambitious or other suspicious motive. 
Though the Lord Jesus and his apostles w^ere 
compassed about with reproachful and persecuting 
enemies, you discern nothing vindictive or resent- 
ful. Though always in personal poverty, " de- 
spised and rejected of men" their miracles discover 
nothing ostentatious — nothing to gratify curiosity 
— no anxiety for repute — no aim at wealth or tem- 
poral power. While feeding the hungry by thou- 
sands, Jesus continued in poverty. While, as the 
good Shepherd, ever following the lost sheep 
through suffering and want, that he might admi- 
nister to their necessities, he showed no sign of any 
care for himself. Now, if Jesus and his apostles 
did not work miracles in truth ; if their high claims 
were false, and they consequently were prosecuting 
a scheme of imposture with selfish purposes, either 
of ambition or gain ; there is something in all this 
singularly unaccountable — very unlike the laws of 
nature — exceedingly miraculous. 

XIII. But that the miracles of the gospel were 
not fictitious, but genuine and undeniable, we have 
the plainest and strongest confession from the primi- 
tive adversaries of Christ and his cause. In the first 
place ; we have a very conclusive and impressive 
confession, though silent, from the whole Jewish 
nation and the whole Gentile world. It consists 
in this unquestionable fact, that no individual 
among them ever detected, or was publicly sup- 
30 



234 



LECTURE VI. 



posed to have detected, an imposture. You are to 
remember that these mh-acles were addressed to 
the senses ; performed in open daylight ; w^ith all 
possible publicity ; that they were exceedingly nu- 
merous and various ; wrought by many different 
agents ; in many and remote countries ; before ci- 
tizens of the most enlightened cities, and in the 
most enlightened age of the Roman empire ; that 
those of the Apostles did not cease until nearly 
seventy years from their commencement, during 
all which time they must have endured the very 
closest scrutiny that the combined forces of learn- 
ing, enmity, and political authority, could institute. 
You are to remember, also, what kind of men were 
those who performed them, and that the accounts 
of them which we now possess were published far 
and wide in the very places where the works were 
done, and among the very people who are said to 
have witnessed them. Yoti are to remember, for 
example, the miracle of the gift of tongues on the 
day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, how it was pub- 
lished abroad in Jerusalem and the whole empire, 
that, on that day, an immense multitude of people 
of all languages were amazed at hearing the twelve 
apostles, who were well known as unlettered Jews, 
preaching the gospel in so many different lan- 
guages, that all, whether Cretes, Arabians, Meso- 
potamians, or of any other name, all heard, in their 
respective tongues, the wonderful works of God. 
You are to consider, that in publishing an account 
of this astonishing transaction, as was done by the 



LECTURE VI. 235 

apostles in all their preaching, antl a few years 
afterwards, by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles ; 
an open, honest appeal was made to all the hun- 
dreds of thousands who had been assembled on 
that day in Jerusalem, to come forth and deny that 
these things did then and there occur. Hence was 
every possible facility afforded for the detection of 
imposture. Without a miracle for its concealment, 
it could not have escaped. Had there been a de- 
tection with regard to but one of all the miracles, 
we should have heard of it. Judea, and Greece, 
and Rome, would have rung with the news. The 
books of Jewish and Heathen adversaries would 
have reiterated its publication in illuminated pages 
and golden capitals. All the generations of suc- 
ceeding adversaries would have quoted it as one 
of the dearest bequests of classic antiquity. Is 
there any such thing ? I sound the inquiry through 
the whole region of Jewish, and Grecian, and Ro- 
man history, and I hear nothing in answer, but the 
echo of my own voice : " Is there any such thing ?" 
I must ansAver it myself. There is no such thing, 
in all that has come to us from antiquity, as even 
a pretence to the detection of imposture in the 
gospel miracles. 

This I think you will join me in considering a 
very impressive and conclusive confession, though 
a silent one, from the whole Jewish nation and 
Gentile world, to the undeniable reality of the mi- 
racles of Christ and his apostles. It is all the evi- 
dence we could with any reason expect from ene- 



236 LECTURE VI. 

mies. When Deists bid us produce the testimony 
of enemies, as well as friends, it is perfectly unrea- 
sonable to require that we should find enemies, in 
those days of bitter hostility to Christianity, posi- 
tively acknowledging that it was attested by mi- 
racles. That they did not deny it ; that Jews and 
Gentiles ; that the Mosaic and the Pagan priest- 
hoods ; that the Pharisees of Jerusalem, and the 
philosophers of Corinth, and Ephesus, and Rome, 
were silent, on this head, one would suppose, is a 
great deal to get from such adversaries. 

But we can go further. Unreasonable, as it is, 
to demand more positive testimony from enemies, 
we can meet the demand. Having, in a previous 
lecture, ascertained the credibility of the gospel 
history, we may now appeal to it for the acknow- 
ledgment of enemies. Peter on tlie day of Pente- 
cost assumed the fact that the multitudes of Israel, 
to whom he was speaking, acknowledged that Je- 
sus of Nazareth had approved himself among them 
by " mi7'acles, and iconders^ and signs"* " This man 
doeth many mirades^'f was the confession of the 
chief priests and Pharisees, in council, relative to 
Jesus. " What shall we do to them ? (said the Jew- 
ish rulers, in relation to Peter and John) For that 
indeed a notable jniracle has been done by them is 
manifest to all them that dwell at Jerusalem^ and 2oe 
cannot deny it^X You know that the only way of 
escape the Jewish rulers could fmd, while they 

* Acts ii, 22, I John xi. 47, % Acts iv, 16. 



LECTURE VI. 237 

could not deny the miracles, was to ascribe them 
to magic, or the power of demons. '' Re casteth 
out devils by Beelzehub^^ &c. But we have similar 
testimony, without recourse to the scriptures. The 
Jewish rabbies, in the Talmud, acknowledge these 
miracles, and pretend that they were wrought by 
magic, or by the power attendant upon a certain 
use of the name Jehovah, called tetragrammaton, 
which, they pretend, Jesus stole out of the temple.* 
But we have positive testimony also from Hea- 
thens. Celsus, who wrote in the latter part of the 
second century, not only allows the principal facts 
of the gospel history, but acknowledges that Chist 
ivrought miracles, by which he engaged great mul- 
titudes to adhere to him as the Messiah. That 
these miracles were really performed, so far from 
denying, he tries to account for by ascribing them 
to magic, which (he says) Christ learned in 
Egypt.! 

Hierocles, president of Bythinia, and a persecu- 
tor of Christians, in a work written against Chris- 
tianity, does not deny tlie miracles of Christ, but 
compares them with those which he pretended had 

* Q,uod Christus per hoc nomen quoque miracula sua ediderit, 
probavit ante multos annos Parchetus. Ejus tamen fabulaj illus- 
trandffi causa, hoc addo, quod apud Tahiiudicos reperi. Ut 
Christus in ea historia refertur descriptum Shemhamphorasch (id 
est, nomen expositum, quod est ipsum nomen nini ), inclusisse in 
discissam cutem pedis, et ex templo eduxisse, ut sic per ejus vim 
miracula postmodum ediderit: Bnxtorf. 

t Lardner, iv. 120 — 130, 



238 LECTURE VJ. 

been wrought a long time before, ])y one Apollo- 
nius, of Tyanea, a heathen, complaining at the 
same time that Christians made so much ado about 
the works of Jesus, as to worship him for God.* 

Julian, the emperor, in the fourth century, ac- 
knowledges the miracles of Christ, and contents 
himself with trying to depreciate their importance. 
" Jesus," he says, " did nothing worthy of fame, 
unless any one can suppose that curing the lame 
and the blind, and exorcising demons in the vil- 
lages of Bethsaida, are some of the greatest works." 
He acknowledges that Jesus had a sovereign power 
over impure spirits, and that he walked on the sur- 
face of the deep.t Now, it is a matter of no little 
wonder, to say the least of it, that in this nineteenth 
century, men should be so sagacious as to discover 
that Christ and his apostles did not attest their 
claims and doctrines with miraculous powers, 
when learned, sagacious, and sufficiently hostile 
unbelievers of the earliest centuries of Christianity, 
having opportunities for discovering the state of 
the case such as they cannot pretend to, were con- 
strained to acknowledge precisely the contrary. I 
marvel that Celsus, and Porphyry, and Hierocles, 
and Julian, and the Scribes, and Pharisees, can rest 
in their graves, when such reflections are cast upon 
the zeal and talents with which they searched for 
imposture in the works of Christ. 

* Lardner, iv. 254. j Lardnor, vol. iv. 332—342. 



LECTURE VI. 239 

XIV. But we have even better testimony than 
that of enemies. Had Celsns found himself not 
only unable to deny the miracles of Christ, but 
persuaded, by the mere force of their truth, to re- 
nounce heathenism, and consecrate his life, in the 
face of persecution and death, to the service of 
the gospel, would not his testimony have been 
greatly increased in importance 7 Would not the 
very fact of his becoming a Christian, under the 
power of evidence, be the consideration, which, in- 
stead of injuring his testimony as that of a friend, 
would have given it peculiar force as that of a 
friend who teas once afi enemy? Then if I find 
cases precisely corresponding with this — if I pre- 
sent you with hundreds and thousands of such 
cases, and tens of thousands — will you not own 
that their positive testimony is far stronger 
than even that of the adversaries whom we have 
cited, and the strongest of which in the nature of 
things we could be possessed 1 I find precisely such 
cases in the apostles of Christ. They are regarded 
as interested witnesses, because they were friends^ 
But what made them friends ? Were they not 
men like others? Jews, like others'? Consider 
Paul, once a fierce persecutor of Christians I 
What made him a friend? Consider the three 
thousand, converted from bitter, persecuting Ju- 
daism to the faith of Christ, on the day of Pente- 
cost. What made friends and disciples of them ? 
Was it that they expected any earthly honours or 
gains from taking up the cross of a crucified Mas- 



240 LECTURE VI, 

ter, in whose wonderful works they did not be- 
lieve '? Was it that they coveted reproach, enjoyed 
suffering, and loved death ? or because, by careful 
consideration, they were so convinced that the mi- 
racles of Christ, especially that of his rising from 
the dead, were true, that no certainty of persecu- 
tion, no sacrifices of property, character, friends, or 
life, were sufficient to prevent them from confessing 
him before men? To these add the hundreds of 
thousands, who, during the ministry of the apos- 
tles, from having been Jews or Heathens, and ene- 
mies of the gospel, became its devoted followers 
and heroic confessors. They bore witness, by 
word and deed, in torture and death, to the great 
fact that the miracles of Christ were true. And 
what is their testimony worth? What possible 
motive can you assign for the total change which 
took place in all their habits, attachments, man- 
ners, and affections, when they became Christians, 
other than that of deep, solemn conviction ? To 
suppose they were not convinced, is to suppose that 
they made the most tremendous sacrifices, not only 
without motive, but in dh'ect op])osition to the most 
powerful motives of the human brea.st. They well 
knew the poverty, and persecution, and martyr- 
dom, to which they exposed themselves. Why, 
then, did they become Christians ? When after- 
wards pursued as the off-scouring of all things, 
and pests of the world; when no name was so 
odious as that of Christian ; when to bring those 
who bore it to torture was universal! v accounted 



LECTURE VI. 241 

meritorious ; when it was the study of magistrates 
and soldiers to invent new modes of tormenting 
them ; ^vhen thousands of all ranks and ages were 
daily slain for the testimony of Jesus, who, by the 
act of a moment, could have stilled the storm to 
perfect peace ; why did they persist and die ? To 
pretend to explain their steadfastness, except on 
the supposition of their having firmly believed 
what they professed, were perfectly absurd. But 
did they not know 7 Living in the same age with 
the apostles ; living in the very places where the 
miracles were performed; they, if any on earth, 
must have possessed the opportunity of discovering 
the truth with regard to them. We have, then, 
the impressive fact of hundreds of thousands of 
the adversaries of the gospel, in the first century of 
ch?istianity, Jews, and Greeks, and Romans, many of 
whom had been persecutors of Christians, bearing 
the most positive testimony to, what they had 
every opportunity of investigating, the reality of 
the miracles of Christ ; and sealing their testimony 
in the renouncing of all that was dear to them by 
birth, habit, or education, and embracing Chris- 
tianity at the expense of the keenest reproach and 
the most painful death. Testimony stronger or 
more undeniable than this, I cannot imagine. If 
this be not sufficient to prove a plain matter of 
fact, such for example as that Lazarus was seen 
alive after he was known to have been dead ; then 
farewell all history and all knowledge. Nothing 
31 



242 LECTURE VI. 

can be reasonably believed, except on evidence of 
sense, and hardly then, after rejecting this. 

We have now arrayed as many of the materials 
of the argument for the gospel miracles as our time 
vrould permit. It only remains that we put them 
together into one view, so as to enable you to ap- 
preciate their united strength. I know not how 
to do this in a better way, than to take the suppo- 
sition that all the miracles of Christ and of his apos- 
tles were fictions, and consequently their authors, 
deliberate deceivers ; and then consider how far 
the supposition will carry us. Let us do so. You 
understand the supposition. What must be be- 
lieved by those who will maintain it ? 

They must believe that Jesus and his apostles, 
being obscure, unlettered Jews, without a single 
circumstance to give them influence, were so per- 
fectly silly and mad as to flatter themselves that 
they could set up a scheme of religion, which, 
though in utter contradiction to the habits, pas- 
sions, prejudices, and institutions, of all the world, 
should succeed in overturning the religious systems 
and institutions of the most enlightened nations ; 
and yet that, with this unaccountable infatuation, 
they were so singularly wise, as to maintain, through- 
out all the miracles which they professed to work in 
proof of their system, the most perfect consistency 
with the dignity and disinterestedness of the oflice 
they assumed, and with the majesty, holiness, and 
goodness of that God in whose name they pro- 
fessed to come. 



LECTURE VI, 243 

They must believe that Jesus and his apostles 
were so wicked, as to attempt an imposture which 
involved not only continual dishonesty, but down- 
right blasphemy, and this from motives of mere 
ambition or avarice ; and yet that during the space 
of seventy years they kept up such an invariable 
show of eminent goodness and disinterestedness, as 
in all their works to manifest not the smallest ap- 
pearance of selfishness or any evil design ; but, on 
the contrary, the utmost evidence of self-denial, of 
self-humiliation, of purity, of holiness, of the ten- 
derest compassion, and the most laborious benevo- 
lence ; so that even their enemies never brought 
inconsistency to their charge. 

They must believe the apostles to have been so 
strangely in love, either with wealth, or honour, 
or power, or something else, as to be willing, even 
out of their obscurity and weakness, to seek it 
by such a desperate scheme as that of Chris- 
tianity ; and yet that, when honours were offered, 
they earnestly refused them ; when they saw the 
triumph of their enemies in the crucifixion of 
Christ, and that nothing awaited his followers but 
disgrace, poverty, and persecution, they persisted 
in advocating the cause of their fallen leader ; and 
when the storms of persecution grew darker and 
darker, and ruin and death were the certain con- 
sequences of perseverance, and one word of con- 
fession would have saved them, such was their infa- 
tuated attachment to this scheme of imposture, such 
their singular devotion to self, to honour, or wealth, 



244 LECTURE VI, 

or power, or something else, that they drove on from 
suffering to suffering, from shame to shame, ending 
at last their pursuit in a bitter death, with the full 
belief, as Jews, that in eternity they should be con- 
demned to an awful retribution for their whole 
career. 

They must believe that while the apostles Avere 
so utterly destitute of common ingenuity that they 
selected precisely that kind of credential which it 
was the most difficult to forge, and instead of seek- 
ing, as other impostors would have done, private, 
or confined, or solitary places, for their miracles, 
chose those of the greatest resort and publicity, and 
then placed and left their miracles directly under 
the senses of the multitude ; that while they had 
so little contrivance that instead of selecting a few 
masked friends, or the most ignorant of the popu- 
lace for witnesses, they seemed rather to prefer 
having hardly any witnesses but enemies, and 
those frequently of the highest, most literate, and 
powerful classes ; that while so utterly wanting in 
the common cunning of impostors, that instead of 
keeping their doings to one or a few places, they 
performed them any where, upon any subjects, 
however suddenly or confusedly presented, and, 
instead of ceasing when they had done a few with 
success, continued the hazard for many years, in 
innumerable instances, and while they were wide- 
ly separated from one another ; I say it must be 
believed, that Christ and his apostles, with all 
these evidences of extraordinary idiocy or lunacy, 



LECTURE VI. 245 

were yet so wonderfully ingenious, wary, and wise ; 
so singularly skilled in imposture ; so learned in 
human nature and the world ; such a marvellous 
match for the combined efforts of the wise, and 
mighty, and diligent, of Judea, and Greece, and 
Rome ; laid their plans so deeply ; concerted their 
movements so skilfully; kept their secrets so 
closely ; carried on the whole complicated plot for 
many years so consistently, that though ever 
watched while together and while separated ; con- 
tinually scrutinized by all sorts of witnesses and 
of enemies ; none could ever detect the least flaw 
in their pretensions ; none could discover that the 
blind did not see ; the lame did not walk ; the 
dead did not rise. On the contrary, the people of 
Bethany were so deceived as actually to believe 
that they daily saw one of their townsmen, whom 
they knew to have died, living and eating among 
them. The people of Jerusalem were so deceived 
as to believe, that they saw a man whom they knew 
to have been lame from his birth, daily walking 
among them perfectly well. The five thousand 
were fully persuaded that they did all eat and 
were filled with a few loaves and fishes. The peo- 
ple of Syria were so tricked as really to believe 
that their multitudes of sick with divers diseases 
and torments, whom they had brought to Jesus, 
went home with them perfectly well, without an 
exception. Yea, the whole Jewish and Heathen 
world was so imposed upon by these unlettered, 
simple, despised, persecuted Jews, as tacitly to 



246 LECTURE VI, 

confess the genuineness of their miracles. Philo- 
sophers and rabbies, when they attacked Chris- 
tianity, did not deny it ; several of them positively, 
in their books, acknowledged it ; and hundreds of 
thousands in the age of the apostles, out of the 
most polished cities and most respectable classes, 
were so entirely taken captive and spell-bound by 
the magic scheme of these weak men, that they 
forsook all and took joyfully the spoiling of their 
goods, and yielded themselves to lire and sword 
and wild beasts, rather than not confess and follow 
Christ. 

Such are the wonderful things ; such the viola- 
tions of the laws of nature and of common sense ; 
such the wicked and contradictory miracles which 
necessarily follow as true, as soon as the miracles 
of Christianity are rejected as false. Now, tell 
me on which side the charge of credulity lies with 
the greatest weight. Now, give the reason why 
our modern unbelievers, instead of meeting the 
testimony of the gospel miracles in front, are so 
conscientiously scrupulous never to know any 
thing about it, and always expend their ingenuity 
in ridiculing the dignity, or in picking out what 
they would represent as inconsistencies in the 
books, of scripture. Now explain the singular 
phenomenon tliat the grand high-priest of modern 
infidelity should have invented the convenient prin- 
ciple which sceptical philosophy had ever before so 
painfully sip;hed after, that no testimony can prove 
a miracle. Ah ! yes. It was his only hope. The 



LECTURE VI. 247 

testimony of the christian miracles is perfect. It 
is so overwhehning, that if there be any difficulty 
about them, it arises from the very brightness of 
their evidence itself. It is almost inconceivable 
that such works, wrought so publicly and fre- 
quently, and with such incontrovertible marks of a 
divine hand, should not have made more converts ; 
that all who beheld them did not yield at once to 
the great Teacher whom they attested, and espouse 
his cause. But the explanation is not difficult. 
The human heart is depraved enough for the most 
desperate rejection of such a master as the Lord 
Jesus. Men will go to the greatest lengths of folly 
and unbelief to gratify their passions, foster their 
pride, retain their prejudices, and escape the ne- 
cessity of making sacrifices for conscience's sake. 
The truth that so many Jews and Heathens, with 
this blaze of testimony before them, did not submit 
to the gospel, is not so astonishing as what is seen 
every day among ourselves : persons believing the 
New Testament, and that Christ is the only Sa- 
viour of sinners — that eternal blessedness awaits 
those who follow him, and eternal woe those who 
neglect his salvation — and yet, for all practical 
ends, as unmoved by these truths as if they were 
fables — as little engaged in the service of Christ 
as if they had never heard his name. 

But we must conclude. I trust you will hence- 
forth allow me to consider the miracles of the gos- 
pel as proved to be genuine. If so, we must consi- 
der the credentials of Christ and his apostles as 



248 LECTURE VI, 

acknowledged. They were therefore what they 
professed to be, divinely commissioned and inspired 
teachers. God was with them. What they pub- 
lished as a revelation from God, we are conse- 
quently bound to receive as a revelation from God. 
That publication is contained in the New Testa- 
ment. We have already ascertained the authenti- 
city and credibility of the New Testament as con- 
taining it. We cease, therefore, this evening, with 
the conclusion that the religion published in the 
New Testament is a revelation from God. 

May the greatest and best of all the works of 
the Lord Jesus be wrought in all of us ; even the 
blessed work of his grace, aw^akening the sinner 
from spiritual death ; changing, exalting, purifying 
all the affections of his depraved nature ; opening 
the eyes of his understanding to behold the glory 
of God ; leading him, in repentance and faith, to 
the cross for pardon and peace ; shedding abroad 
in his heart the spirit of divine love ; and causing 
him to rejoice in the blessed assurance of a crown 
of glory that fadeth not away ! 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE VII 



PROPHECY. 



Having shown the genuineness of the miracles 
recorded in the New Testament, in attestation of 
the divine mission of the Saviour and his apostles ; 
we are now to take up the subject of prophecy. 
But while proceeding to this additional source of 
evidence, it is important to be observed, that we 
do so, not because we consider the reasoning in 
proof of Christianity, as a divine revelation, to which 
you have already listened, in any sense incom- 
plete. Had our course of lectures been terminated 
with the last, the argument would have been 
brought to an incontrovertible issue. Having made 
out the great point that genuine miracles were 
32 



250 LECTURE VII. 

wrought by the Saviour and his apostles, in attes- 
tation of the divine authority of what they did and 
taught ; we have established, by necessary conse- 
quence, the great truth that Jesus Christ was a 
teacher come from God, and that the New Testa- 
ment, as an authentic publication of the religion 
taught by him, is to be received as containing a 
divine revelation of truth and duty. One line of 
evidence, therefore — one road leading to the scrip- 
tures, as the great central fountain of divine truth, 
we have travelled over; and it has set us down 
beside the water of life. Now, if this were the only 
road, it would be amply sufficient. The loftiest 
intellect need not be ashamed ; the weakest need 
not fear, to walk therein.* But God has not only 
furnished us with the plainest, but with the most 
various and abundant evidence. And since the 
object of these lectures is not only to prove the 
divine authority of the gospel, but also to give you 
an idea of the diversified character of the many 
ways by which the proof may be established ; we 
propose now to return from the position we have 

* A celebrated infidel once acknowledged that even atheism 
would be refuted by the proof of a single miracle of the gospel. 
Spinoza declared that he would have broken his atheistic system 
to pieces, and embraced without repugnance the ordinary faith of 
Christians, could he have been persuaded of the resurrection of 
Lazarus from the dead ! Was it not a foresight of the arguments 
that would necessarily result from the proof of this mii-acle that 
prevented him from being persuaded of its truth ? 

See Watson's Apology for Christianity, p. 93. 



LECTURE VII. 251 

reached by the argument of onr last lecture, and 
endeavour to arrive at it again by a route entirely 
different. We take up the prophecies, recorded in 
the scriptures, and shall endeavour to produce from 
them satisfactory and impressive evidence that in 
the Bible we have divine inspiration, and in Jesus 
Christ, a teacher sent of God. 

What is a iiropliccy^ according to the sense of 
scripture, and as w^e are now about to consider it ? 
It is a declaration of future events, such as no human 
wisdom or forecast is sufficient to make ; depend- 
ing on a knowledge of the innumerable contingen- 
cies of human affairs, which belongs exclusively to 
the omniscience of God ; so that, from its very na- 
ture, prophecy must be divine revelation. " The 
prophecy came not in old time by the ivill of man ; 
but holy men of God spake as they were fnoved by 
the Holy Ghost. '' 

A prophecy, considered in itself, separately from 
its fulfilment, is no evidence of revelation, because 
it is not perfected. But as soon as fulfilled, it is 
complete. The hand of God in it, is then attested. 
The evidence that the person by whom it was ut- 
tered was under the influence of the spirit of divine 
omniscience, is finished. Then prophecy takes the 
place of miracle, and becomes at once the highest 
and most unquestionable proof, not only that the 
individual who declared it was the agent of com- 
municating, in that particular, a divine revelation ; 
but also that a divine sanction is impressed upon 
that whole system of religion with which his pro- 



252 



LECTURE VII. 



phecies may be connected.* " Future contingen- 
cies, such for example, as those which relate to the 
rise and fall of nations and states not yet in exist- 
ence, or to the minute concerns of individuals not 
yet born, are secrets which it is evident no man or 
angel can penetrate, their causes being indetermi- 
nate, their relations with other things fluctuating 
and unknown. It follows, therefore, that the pre- 
diction of such contingent events cannot otherwise 
than proceed from God ; and farther, since God 
cannot without a violation of His perfect holiness 
and rectitude, visibly aid delusion and wickedness, 
the inference is equally cogent and necessary, that 
the accomplishment of predictions delivered by 
those who profess divine authority amounts to a 
full proof that they really possess the authority 
they assume. Other arguments may be evaded • 
other evidence may not convince. Strange effects 
(though not miraculous ones) may be produced by 
other than divine power."! But this can only be 
evaded by refusing to behold it, and only counter- 
feited by him who is ingenious enough to borrow 
omniscience in aid of imposture. " To declare a 
thing shall come to be, long before it is in being 
(says Justin Martyr) ; and then to bring about the 
accomplishment of that very thing, according to 

* " All prophecies (says Hume) are real miracles, and as such 
only, can be admitted as proofs of any revelation." 

Philosophical Essays, 
t Gregory's Letters. 



LECTURE VII. 253 

the same declaration ; this, or nothing, is the Avork 
of God." 

There are considerations connected with this 
particular source of evidence, which render it spe- 
cially interesting and valuable. 

Prophecy furnishes an argument, the force of 
which is continually growing. The argument be- 
gan, when first a single prophecy was fulfilled. It 
increased more and more as predictions and fulfil- 
ments multiplied. In the age of the apostles, it was 
a powerful as well as favourite weapon in proof of 
the gospel. But during that period many new pre- 
dictions were published, and many ancient ones 
remained to be accomplished. The argument, con- 
sequently, was not yet at its height. It has been 
growing ever since, as one century after another 
has rolled out an additional fulfilment, or com- 
pleted and enlarged those already advanced. We, 
in the present age, enjoy an expanse, and variety, 
and completeness of prophetic evidence far ex- 
ceeding those which the chart of history presented 
to St. Paul. There is to us, a voice from the silent 
solitudes where Babylon and Tyre once stood in 
pride, and reigned in power ; from the modern his- 
tory of the prostrate Egypt ; from the wonderful 
annals and present condition of the Jewish race ; 
from the desolate state of the holy land and ad- 
joining countries ; from the rise and present aspect 
of the mystic Babylon — which the primitive chris- 
tians were not privileged to hear. The force of 
this argument is yet to grow continually. A few 



254 LECTURE VII, 

years hence, in all probability, will exhibit it in- 
vested with a brightness and glory, compared with 
which all present evidence will seern but as morn- 
ing twilight. The end of the world will be its full 
maturity. Prophecy having begun with the his- 
tory of sin, extends to the completion of its tra- 
gedy ; and not till the blazing of the great confla- 
gration when " the earth and all that is therein 
shall be burned up," will its every prediction be 
fulfilled; or the fulness of glory with which it 
was designed to show the mtness of God in the 
gospel of his Son, be made to appear. 

Now it is this continual growing of prophetic 
evidence that makes it so peculiarly valuable. The 
argument derived from miracles, though it could 
never have been more conclusive than it is to us, 
was certainly more impressive to those who saw 
the miracles, or who lived in the age in which they 
were wrought. The evidence of the senses, while 
it could not render that argument more perfect to 
us, would certainly make it much more influential. 
And it is very difiicult for most persons to distin- 
guish between the conclusiveness and the iinpres- 
siveness of evidence. Because the lapse of cen- 
turies, by removing the christian miracles far from 
us, has diminished the sensible eifect they would 
otherwise have had upon our minds, it is very gene- 
rally supposed that the same cause has enfeebled 
the evidence on which their genuineness is main- 
tained. This idea, though unfounded entirely, is 
too natural, to those who do not think deeply, to be 



LECTURE VII. 255 

easily removed. But with regard to the evidence 
arising from prophecy, it cannot exist. Predictions, 
now in progress of fulfilment, are miracles which 
centuries can only render more certain and im- 
pressive. If there was a peculiar privilege con- 
ferred on those who saw, in the miracles of Christ, 
manifest to sense, the wonderful works of God's 
omnipotence ; there is also a similar privilege con- 
ferred on ns, who, in consequence of the ever in- 
creasing fulfilment of prophecy, may see in the 
scriptures, more brilliantly illuminated than ever, 
the hand-writing of God's omniscience. 

There is another peculiarity in much of the evi- 
dence from prophecy, which renders it peculiarly 
valuable. It is evidence before our eyes, addj-essed 
to our senses. By this we do not mean that the 
evidence arising from the miracles of Christ and 
his apostles would be any more conclusive, how- 
ever much it would be increased in its impression 
on our minds, did we behold the miracles, instead 
of reading of them in well-attested history. We 
believe, on the contrary, that this description of 
evidence, as addressed to ns, is perfect ; and that 
in the mode in which a believer of the present age 
receives it, there are spiritual benefits which could 
not have been possessed by those who believed the 
gospel on the testimony of their senses. ^' Blessed are 
they that have not seen, and yet have believed." But 
still there is, and perhaps ever will be, a class of minds 
that, like the disciple Thomas, will require to see 
before they will believe. Either their indifference 



256 LECTURE VII. 

or sluggishness prevents them from pursuing a line 
of argument that would carry them back amidst 
the testimonies of antiquity ; or else their willing 
scepticism, by ingenious sophistry, would shield 
them from all the evidence derived from miraculous 
agency, by the assumption that no testimony can 
prove a miracle. The utter fallacy of this position, 
we trust, was satisfactorily shown in a preceding 
lecture. But here are evidences with which, were 
it true, it could have no connection. God, in his 
infinite wisdom and mercy, has provided for all 
classes of mind, and all descriptions of infidelity ; 
so that all unbelievers may be without excuse. 
The argument from prophecy may be rendered 
brief enough for the most sluggish — tangible 
enough for the most obstinate opposers of historical 
testimony. They have only to read in the Bible 
the predictions with regard to the once proud 
cities of Babylon and Tyre, or the once powerful 
empire of Egypt, and then to open their ears to 
the accounts which almost every wind conveys, or 
go and see for themselves the obscure remnants of 
the ruins of those cities, and of that once mighty 
empire ; they have only to read in the books of 
Moses, what, 3300 years ago, was foretold of the 
history of the Jewish people ; and then to lift up 
their eyes, and behold the present condition and the 
notorious peculiarities of that wonderful race ; to 
see that the prophecies of the Bible have been 
plainly and most particularly fulfilled — fulfilled in 
a manner which no human sagacity could have 



LECTURE VII. 257 

foreseen, which no human power could have 
brouglit to pass; and consequently that the au- 
thors of those prophecies were inspired men, and 
the religion they taught was the word of God. In 
these and various other examples, which might be 
adduced, of the present and visible fulfilment of 
prophecy, the miracles of the Jewish and Chris- 
tian dispensations are in fact continued among us. 
" Men are sometimes disposed to think that if they 
could see a miracle wrought in their own sight, 
they would believe the gospel without delay, and 
obey it unreservedly. They know not their own 
hearts. ' If they believe not Moses and the prophets^ 
neither would they believe though one rose from the 
dead J But in the whole range of prophecy now 
fulfilling before their eyes, they have in fact a se- 
ries of divine interpositions, not precisely of the 
nature of miracles, in the sense of brief, and in- 
stant, and visible suspensions of the laws of na- 
ture, but evidently so in the sense of supernatural 
interference, in the rise and fall of cities, and na- 
tions, and empires; in the arrangement of times 
and circumstances; in that wonderful display of 
infinite foreknowledge and infinite power, apparent 
in the control of the wills of unnumbered free and 
accountable agents to a certain result."* 

In our last lecture we stated that the religion of 
the Bible is the only one which, on its first intro- 
duction, appealed to miracles in evidence of 

* Wilson's Lectures. 
33 



258 LECTURE VII. 

the divine authority of its teachers. Other reli- 
gions have professed occasional miracles ; but in 
the outset none, except that of the holy scrip- 
tures, ever rested its claims to belief or was at- 
tempted to be set up, on the faith of miraculous 
operations. We make the same remark, w^ith still 
more evident truth, with regard to prophecy. The 
sublime appeal of men, professing to be commis- 
sioned of God, to the events of thousands of years 
thereafter, as witnesses of their truth ; the moral 
grandeur of that appeal, which, after having depo- 
sited in the hands of nations, a prediction of minute 
transactions, which the innumerable contingencies 
of a long retinue of centuries are to bring out, 
stakes its whole cause upon a perfect fulfilment, 
thus resting itself singly upon the omniscience and 
omnipotence of God, and separating to an infinite 
distance all possibility of human support ; this is a 
dignity to which nothing but the inspiration of the 
scriptures can pretend ; a noble daring on Avhich 
nothing else was ever known to venture. The cor- 
ruptions of Christianity, as existing in the church 
of Rome, have attempted to prop up their feeble 
foundations on the credit of miracles, easily refuted 
indeed, but widely boasted of But prophecy, even 
the effrontery of that " man of sin," " whose coming 
(saitli St. Paul) is with all deceivableness of un- 
righteousness," has never pretended to. Although 
Mohammed did not profess to support his preten- 
sions by miracles, and the Koran expressly con- 
cedes that miraculous power was not given him ; 



LECTURE VII. 259 

yet his followers, hundreds of years after his death, 
related many miracles as having been performed 
under his hand. But that Mohammed, though 
styled the prophet of God, ever declared a pro- 
pheci/y on the fulfilment of which he rested his 
claims to inspiration, none ever asserted. 

The history of pagan nations, indeed, abounds 
with stories of auguries, and oracles, and detached 
predictions; but it was with no reference to the 
establishment of paganism that they were uttered. 
On the contrary, the fact that paganism was esta- 
blished, already ; gave them all their reverence. 
But what an immeasurable distance separates all 
the pretended oracles of paganism, from the dignity 
of the prophecies in the Bible. The avowed end 
of the former was to satisfy some trivial curiosity, 
or aid the designs of some military or political 
leader. The influence of intimidation or of bribery 
produced them. They were never spontaneous. 
The oracles were careful to take advantage of the 
security of silence, until obliged to speak in an- 
swer to a direct appeal. Then they never uttered 
a syllable without getting time for preparation. 
Inquiries were rendered as difficult and as expen- 
sive as possible, in order, not only to enrich the ora- 
cles, but to diminish the occasions of exposure. 
Every inquiry must be attended with numerous 
and minute ceremonies on the part of the appli- 
cant, as well as the prophet ; in order that omissions 
or mismanagements might afford frequent excuses 
for the failure of the response, without implicating 



260 



LECTURE Vll. 



the inspiration of its author. The god was not 
always in a humour to be consulted. " Either he 
ivas talking, or he teas pursuing, or he urns in a 
journey, or peradventure he was sleeping, and must 
be awakened" This afforded a very convenient 
opportunity of putting off a difficult case. " Omens 
were to be taken, and auguries examined, which, 
if unfavourable in any particular, either precluded 
the inquiry for the present, or required further lus- 
trations, ceremonies, and sacrifices, to purify the 
person who had consulted, and render him fit to 
receive an answer from the gods, or to bring their 
wayward deities to a temper suitable to the in- 
quiry."* When no means of evasion remained, the 
answers given were either so ambiguous as to suit 
any alternative, or so obscure as to require a se- 
cond oracle to explain them. When the predic- 
tion failed, there was no want of subterfuges by 
which to maintain the credit of the oracle. It was 
conveniently discovered, either that the gods were 
averse to the inquirer, or that he had not been in a 
proper state for the consultation, or that some in- 
dispensable ceremony had been omitted or misma- 
naged. But all these precautions and artifices 
were not sufiicient to prevent those oracles from 
falling into utter contempt with the more enlight- 
ened heathens.! Who could think of comparing 
such pitiful mockeries of divine onniiscience with 

* Nare's View of Prophecy. 

t Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacrce, 1. 2, c. 8, p. 221. 



LECTURE VII. 261 

the dignified, and sublime, and holy prophecies 
which are spread out so openly and widely in the 
scriptures ? To point out the particulars in which 
the prophets of the Bible were distinguished above 
all the oracles of the Pagans, were to suppose a 
measure of ignorance among my hearers, as to the 
most conspicuous features of the scriptures, with 
which I cannot believe them chargeable. But our 
assertion remains, and deserves to be repeated, 
that neither in the rise, nor in the progressive ad- 
vancement of any religion, but that of the Bible, 
have prophecies been professed or appealed to ; 
in evidence of its truth. This single fact, that all 
other religions have shrunk from attempting such 
dangerous ground; that notwithstanding the bold- 
ness with which other descriptions of evidence 
have been counterfeited among Pagans and Mo- 
hammedans, and in support of the corruptions of 
popery, all have kept aloof from this; and yet 
that this very evidence, so extremely hazardous — 
so certain of ultimate exposure in case of imposi- 
tion — is every where professed in the Bible, and 
forms the golden chain that holds all its parts to- 
gether, and by which it spans the world, touching 
at once its beginning and ending, the first and the 
last ; this, I say, independently of the question of 
fulfilment, is a strong presumptive argument that 
the Bible contains something of great importance 
which no other religion possessed; something to 
warrant it in venturing where nothing but Divine 
Omniscience is able to tread ; in other words, that 



262 LECTURE VII 

its writers loere holy men^ icJto *' spake as they icere 
moved by the Holy Ghost. ^^ 

The overpowering weight of the evidence from 
prophecy, and the moral grandeur with which it 
attests the inspiration of God and the Messiahship 
of Christ, can only be appreciated by a full view of 
the immense scheme and the vast extent of the 
prophecies in the Bible. Their record occupies a 
large portion of the scriptures. In the third chap- 
ter of the Bible, it begins ; in the last, it ends. Its 
spirit arose with the fall of man in Eden ; its pre- 
dictions will only end with his perfect recovery in 
heaven. During the progress of more than four 
thousand years, the scheme of prophecy was con- 
tinually opening ; its predictions were continually 
multiplying; its grand object and purpose were 
continually becoming more distinct and luminous. 
The spirit of prophecy first uttered its voice when 
as yet our fallen parents had not been expelled the 
garden of innocence, Cain heard in it the warning 
of his punishment. Enoch continued its declara- 
tions. Noah transmitted its strain. Abraham's 
whole life was guided and encouraged by its inspi- 
rations. Isaac was the child, as well as the instru- 
ment of prophetic communication. Jacob with his 
last breath foretold the future history of his twelve 
sons in their generations, and the reign of a law- 
giver in Judali till Sliiloh should come. The harp 
of prophecy remained in silence, while the posterity 
of Jacob remained in Egyptian bondage ; but no 
sooner was Israel free, than the Spirit again 



LECTURE VII. 263 

breathed upon its strings, and in the hand of Moses 
it spake of the great Prophet who was to come to 
the church, and sketched, the Jewish history with 
wonderful minuteness, down even to the present 
and far future times. Between Moses and David, 
lived Samuel, a prophet of the Lord. Immediately- 
after him, began what may be styled, with emphatic 
distinction, '' the age of prophecy'^ It opened with 
the elevated and sublime poetry of David. It ad- 
vanced with the stern ministry of honoured Elijah. 
As he went up in the flaming chariot, translated to 
heaven, his mantle descended upon the " man of God" 
Elisha. Among the minor prophets who carried 
on the spirit of this age of seers, were Hosea, Amos, 
and Micah. Then followed Isaiah, as full of the 
spirit of the gospel, as of the spirit of prophecy ; 
and Jeremiah ; overflowing as well with tender la- 
mentation for the affliction of Israel, as with the 
sublimest predictions of the days when the Lord 
would heal and comfort them ; then Ezekiel, with 
as many visions of the future, as the eyes in his mys- 
terious wheels, prophecying " in the midst of the 
valley which was filled with bones." Ezekiel con- 
nected in his person the age of prophecy with that 
of the captivity of Judah. Daniel succeeded him, and 
beside the prophetic interpretation of the hand- 
writing on the wall, foretold the succession of the 
four powerful monarchies, and the feeble rising and 
ultimate dominion of the fifth, and determined the 
time when the daily sacrifice would cease, and 
Messiah he cut off — not for himself. Haggai and 



264 LECTURE VII. 

Zechariah continued the prophetic strain, after 
the return of Judah from captivity. Malachi ter- 
minated the line of Old Testament prophets and 
the canon of Old Testament scriptures, vsdth the 
sublime annunciation of one who was to come, in 
the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare the way 
of the Lord. Again ,the harp of prophecy was 
silent as during the bondage of Egypt, until "that 
Prophet" like unto, but infinitely greater than, Moses 
arose. Jesus, the great object of prophecy from 
the beginning — himself " the spirit of 'prophecij ;" — 
besides his own death and resurrection — foretold 
the calamities that should befall Jerusalem, as 
well as utter destruction of the Jewish state. 
Paul followed his Master's steps, as well in the 
walks of prophecy, as of martyrdom, forewarning 
the church of " that man of sin, the son of perdi- 
tion, whose coming is after the working of Satan, 
with all power, and signs, and lying wonders."* 
John closed the succession of prophecy, and the 
canon of scripture together, with predictions, the 
awful sublimity of which no pen can rival, and the 
wonderful expanse of which nothing but the events 
of all future time can measure. 

Thus have we a bright train of holy men, reach- 
ing from the earliest age of mankind, through a 
period of more than four thousand years, and ex- 
tending their predictions to the world's end. I see 
in them the utmost variety — as well as to condi- 

* 2 Thess. ii. 3—9. 



LECTURE VII. 265 

tion and character, as to the ages in which they 
lived — princes, 'patriarchs, priests, legislators, shep- 
herds, fishermen. Exceedingly various in natural 
qualifications, in education, habits, and employ- 
ments ; they wrote in various styles, but each as he 
was moved by the Holy Ghost. Now when, in 
connection with this variety in the prophets them- 
selves ; I consider the vast variety and extent of 
the subjects on which their predictions are em- 
ployed, embracing not only the history of the Jews 
for many centuries, but that also of the minor na- 
tions immediately around, with that of the more 
remote empires of Egypt, and Assyria, and Chal- 
dea, and Persia, and Macedon, and Rome ; when 
I consider that in this immense vastness of extent, 
so great is their minuteness of detail, that sundry 
particular events and features in the destruction, 
not only of the city of Jerusalem, but also of Ni^ 
neveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, are predicted with 
the most graphic and striking precision ; when, in 
the midst of such wonderful diversity of authors, 
ages, circumstances, and of subjects, from the 
downfall of an empire, to the tumbling of a wall, I 
perceive not the smallest inconsistency or collision, 
but, on the contrary, the utmost harmony, as well 
of execution as of purpose and of spirit — the whole 
array of prophecy, from first to last, bearing down 
and concentrating upon one grand object — the tes^ 
timonij of Jesus — the rise, progress, and eternal ac- 
comptlishment of his plan of redeemi7ig love ; in a 
word, when I behold a scheme so vast, as to em- 
34 



266 



LECTURE VTl. 



brace all time, and yet so minute that it can detail 
the events of an hour ; so general that, in a few 
lines, it predicts the history of the four mightiest 
empires, and yet so particular that chapters are 
devoted to the history of one individual ; so diver- 
sified in its materials, as to be made up of contri- 
butions from men of all ages and minds, during a 
period of four thousand years ; and yet so identical 
that one spirit and one grand, harmonious purpose 
animate the whole ; when I compare all this, ar- 
rayed, as it is, in the richest poetry and loftiest 
eloquence that eye of man ever read, with what- 
ever else in the world ever pretended to the 
praise of prophecy ; I behold a grandeur of concep- 
tion — a sublimity of design — an all-controlling 
power of execution — a unity and self-depending su- 
premacy of mind which bespeak the omniscience 
and omnipotence of Him who " was, and is, and is 
to come, the Almighty." I say nothing yet of the 
fulfilment of any portion of this stupendous plan ; 
I only say, look at the plan itself in all its compre- 
hensiveness and minuteness, and tell me if it be 
not utterly at variance with all human experi- 
ence, and in itself perfectly incredible, that impos- 
ture should have conceived such a scheme, or 
should ever have dared to commit its cause to a 
venture that could only succeed by a continuance 
of miraculous fortune through all ages of the 
world. Consider the plan itself, the various minds 
that carried on the succession of its several pre- 
dictions, forming a line of holy men from the ear- 



LECTURE VII. 267 

liest periods of antediluvian history, down to the 
last of the apostles of Christ ; see how they all 
agree in spirit and purpose, while yet so different in 
character and circumstances ; see how they all 
unite in testifying of Christ, so that, as the last of 
them said, " the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
prophemj ;" then tell me, how imposture can be 
supposed to have wrought, unexposed, for so many 
thousands of years ; how it could have chosen its 
agents out of forty centuries — out of circumstances 
so disadvatageous, and bid them embrace such an 
immense range of subjects for their predictions, and 
yet without any inconsistency, or want of harmony, 
or any thing incompatible with the idea of one all- 
pervading mind having regulated the whole. I 
do not now say that so much as one prophecy 
has been fulfilled. I only say, and I challenge 
all denial, that not a single prediction in the whole 
succession can be shown to have failed ; or to have 
been contradicted by the times or events to which 
it referred. I only assert that, while many of the 
prophecies remain unfulfilled, because the times 
they relate to have not arrived; a very great number 
must have either been fulfilled already, or have ut- 
terly failed ; and yet no unbeliever could ever put his 
hand on that portion of history which contradicted 
the truth of any. I ask you to remember this im- 
portant and undeniable fact, and then say whether, 
independently of the question of evident fulfilment, 
it is not most impressive evidence that another 
mind than that of man was the author of the pro- 



268 LECTURE VII. 

phecies of the Bible ; whether it can be supposed 
possible in the nature of things that human inge- 
nuity could have contrived a volume of predictions 
— reaching so far — extending so widely — telling so 
much — assuming such particularity, without ha- 
ving been contradicted by a single event in the 
history of nearly six thousand years. 

We now enter upon the question of fulfilment. I 
undertake to show that the history of the world 
has wonderfully responded to the prophecies of the 
Bible, and echoed back to the holy men who ut- 
tered them, a complete assurance that they " spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." But 
where shall I begin? It were easier to write a 
volume on this one subject, than to compress the 
matter within our necessary limits, so as to do it 
any tolerable justice. Selecting some insulated 
portions of the train of prophecy, we must content 
ourselves with exhibiting their accomplishment as 
specimens of the whole. To this, the remainder 
of the present lecture, and the whole of the next, 
will be devoted. 

As an example of minute prediction and singular 
fulfilment, compare Jeremiah, xxxiv. 2 and 3, with 
Ezekiel, xii. 13. In the former scripture, it was 
foretold by one prophet, that Zedekiah, the king of 
Judah, should be delivered into the hand of the 
king of Babylon, and behold his eyes, and speak 
with him mouth to mouth, and go to Babylon. In 
the latter, it was foretold by another prophet, that 
Zedekiah should not s.cc Babylon^ though he should 



LECTURE VII. 269 

die there. But is there not a contradiction here 7 
How could Zedekiah be taken to Babylon, and be- 
hold her king, and die there, and yet never see the 
city 7 The history of the kings of Judah, written 
without any design of pointing out the fulfilment 
of prophecy, fully explains the difficulty. Zede- 
kiah was delivered into the hands of the king of 
Babylon, and beheld his eyes, and spake with him 
mouth to mouth ; not, however, at Babylon, but at 
Riblah. There his eyes loere put out by command 
of his captor. In this state, he w^ent to Babylon, 
and died there, having never seen the city of his 
captivity. 

Another example of wonderful minuteness is 
found in the prophecies of the fall and destruction 
of Babylon. We can notice only a small part of 
them. '' It shall never be inhabited, neither shall 
it be dwelt in, (said the prophet,) from generation 
to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch 
tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their 
fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie 
there, and the houses shall be full of doleful crea- 
tures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall 
dance there, and the wild beasts of the desert shall 
cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their 
pleasant palaces."* " I will also make it a posses- 
sion for the bittern, and pools of water : and I will 
sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the 
Lord of hosts." These words were uttered when 

* Is, xiii. 20, 21, 22. 



270 LECTURE VII. 

Babylon was " the glory of kingdoms, the beauty 
of the Chaldees' excellency," about 160 years be- 
fore she was brought down. '' How hath the 
golden city ceased !" '' Her pomp is brought down 
to the grave." Sixteen centuries have passed since 
her foundations were inhabited by a human being. 
Deterred by superstitious fears of evil spirits, which 
are said to haunt the place where she stood, and 
by the more rational dread of reptiles and wild 
beasts, the wandering Arab never pitches his tent 
there. In a plain once famous for the richness of 
its pasture, the shepherds make no fold. Reptiles, 
bats, and "doleful creatures" — jackalls, hyenas, 
and lions — inhabit the holes, and caverns, and 
marshes, of the desolate city. In the fourth cen- 
tury, Babylon was a hunting-ground for the Persian 
monarchs. By the annual overflowing of the Eu- 
phrates, pools of stagnant water are left in the hol- 
low places of the ancient site, by which morasses 
have been formed, so that Babylon has indeed be- 
come a possession for the hittern^ and i^ools of ica- 
ter. It has been swept icitli the besom of destruc- 
tion. The fertile plain of Shinar, renowned for its 
ancient abundance, is an uninterrupted desert, 
strewed Avith the confused ruins of Grecian, Roman, 
and Arabian towns. A modern traveller, in his 
" search after the icalls of JBabylon" describes " a 
mass of solid wall, about thirty feet in length, by 
twelve or fifteen in thickness," as the only part of 
them that can now be discovered.* Thus, accord- 

* Buckingham's Travels. 



LECTURE VII, 271 

ing to the words of the prophet, is she cast U2) as 
heaps, destroyed utterly ; nothing of her is left* 

Tyre was once the emporium of the world, " the 
theatre of an immense commerce and navigation, 
the nursery of arts and science, and the city of 
perhaps the most industrious and active people ever 
known."! Situate at the entry of the sea, she was 
a merchant of the people for many isles. All na- 
tions were her merchants in all sorts of things. The 
ships of Tarshish did sing of her in the market ; 
and she was i^eplenished and made very glorious in 
the midst of the seas.^ It was of this mistress of 
princes, that Ezekiel prophesied in the name of the 
Lord : '' I will scrape her dust from her, and make 
her like the top of a rock. It shall he a place for 
the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.^'^ How 
singularly particular ! She was not only to be ut- 
terly destroyed, but the use that would be made of 
her site, and the kind of men who would inhabit 
it, were pointed out more than a thousand years 
before her complete destruction. How precise the 
fulfilment ! Shaw, in his book of travels, describes 
the port of Tyre as so choked up, that the boats 
of the fishermen, who now and then come to the place, 
and dry their nets upon its rocks and ruins, can 
hardly enter. || Bruce describes the site of Tyre as 
" a rock whereon fishers dry their nets." But the 

* Jer. 1. 26. | Volney's Travels. 

J Ezekiel xxvii. § Ezekiel xxvi. 4, 6. 

11 Shaw's Travels, ii. p. 31. 



272 LECTURE VII. 

testimony of the infidel, Volney, is more valuable. 
" The whole village of Tyre contains only fifty or 
sixty poor families, who live obscurely on the pro- 
duce of their little ground and a trifling fishery ^^ 
Egypt, the most ancient, was also the most pow- 
erful and wealthy of kingdoms. But a prophecy 
went forth against her while yet she was in all her 
pomp and pride, that the 2^ride of her poioer should 
come down; that her land and all that ivas therein 
should be made loaste by the hand of strangers; 
that there should be no more a 2)rince of the land of 
Bgypt, and the sceptre of Egypt should depart 
away.'t How universally this once fertile country, 
the granary of the world, has been wasted, and 
her innumerable cities have been buried ; how re- 
markably the hand of strangers has done it, and 
how deplorably the remnant of this populous na- 
tion is now, and has been for many centuries, un- 
der slavery, and ignorance^ and poverty, and ra- 
pine, and every crime, I need not describe. The 
most remarkable portion of the prophecy is that 
which declares that there shall be " no more a 
prince of the land of Egypt." From the conquest 
of the Persians, about 350 years before Christ, to 
the present day, the sceptre of Egypt has been 
broken ; she has been governed by strangers ; every 
effort to raise an Egyptian to the throne has been 
defeated. Out of the mouth of Volney, the Lord 
has caused to be declared the fulfilment of His 

* Travels, ii. p. 212. * Ezck. xxx. 6, 12, 13.— Zcch. x. 11. 



LECTURE VII. 273 

word. Of Egypt, that most unwilling agent in esta- 
blishing the truth of scripture writes : " Deprived, 
tw^enty-three centuries ago, of her natural proprie- 
tors, she has seen her fertile fields successively a 
prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, 
the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and at 
length the race of Tartars, distinguished by the 
name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamalukes, pur- 
chased as slaves and introduced as soldiers, soon 
usurped the power, and elected a leader. If their 
first establishment was a singular event, their con- 
tinuance is not less extraordinary. They are re- 
placed by slaves brought from their original coun- 
try. The system of oppression is methodical. 
Every thing the traveller sees or hears reminds 
him he is in the country of slavery and tyranny."* 
Among the most interesting fulfilments of pro- 
phecy, are those discovered in the present condition 
of the country and cities of Judea. For a very 
striking view of them, the reader is referred to 
Keith on Prophecy, a valuable work lately repub- 
lished in this country. But there is one prediction 
in this department which I cannot pass over. Af- 
ter describing the divine judgments upon the land, 
the prophet adds : " The generation to come of 
your children, and the stranger' that shall come 
from a far land, shall say, when they see the 
plagues of that land, and the sickness which the 
Lord hath laid upon it : ' Wherefore hath the Lord 

* Travels, ii. p. 74, 103, 110, 198. 
35 



274 LECTURE VII, 

done thus unto this land ? What meaneth the heat 
of this great anger 7'^^* About 3000 years after 
these words were written, a famous traveller, a 
scoffer at the scriptures, walks through this smit- 
ten country. He is the stranger from a far land. 
Deeply impressed with the aspect of all things 
around him, and in all probability entirely ignorant 
of the prophecy he is about to fulfil, he exclaims : 
" Good God ! from whence proceed such melan- 
choly revolutions ? For what cause is the fortune 
of these countries so strikingly changed? Why 
are so many cities destroyed ? Why is not that 
ancient population reproduced and perpetuated ?" 
" I wandered over the country. I traversed the 
provinces. I enumerated the kingdoms of Damas- 
cus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria. This 
Syria, said I to myself, now almost depopulated, 
then contained a hundred flourishing cities, and 
abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets. 
What are become of so many productions of the 
hands of man ?"t &c. 

No prophecies deserve more of the attention of 
the student of scripture than those concerning the 
Jews, which are scattered from one end of the 
Bible to the other. Theu- wonderful accomplish- 
ment is in every one's view. We can only glance 
at some of the many particulars which they em- 
brace. Three thousand two hundred years ago, it 
was written by Moses : '' The Lord shall scatter 

* Deut. xxix. 22, 24. f Volney's Ruins, c ii. p. S. 



LECTURE VII, 275 

thee among all people, from the one end of the 
earth even unto the other ; and among these na- 
tions shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole 
of thy foot have rest ; and thou shalt become an 
astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all 
the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee ; and 
thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway ; 
and the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, 
and the plague of thy seed, even great plagues and 
of long continuance."* But notwithstanding all 
this, the Jews were not to be destroyed without 
recovery. " Yet for all that (saith the prophet), 
when they be in the land of their enemies, I will 
not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to 
destroy them utterly."! " I will make a full end 
of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but 
I will not make a full end of thee."J " For the 
children of Israel shall abide many days without 
a king, and without a prince, and without a sacri- 
fice, and without an image, and without an ephod, 
and without teraphim : afterward shall the chil- 
dren of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, 
and David their king ; and shall fear the Lord and 
his goodness in the latter days."§ 

There is nothing in the history of nations so un- 
accountable, on human principles, as the destruc- 
tion and the preservation of the Jews. '' Scattered 
among all nations;" where are they not? Citi- 

* Deut. xxviii. t Lev. xxvi. 44. J Jer. xlvi. 27, 28. 
§ Hosea, iii. 4, 6. 



276 LECTURE VII. 

zens of the world, and yet citizens of no country 
in the world ; in what habitable part of the globe 
is not the Jew familiarly known 1 He has wan- 
dered every where, and is still every where a wan- 
derer. One characteristic of this wonderful race 
is written over all their history, from their disper- 
sion to the present time. Among the nations, they 
have found no ease, nor i^est to the soles of their feet. 
Banished from city to city, and from country to 
country ; always insecure in their dwelling places, 
and liable to be suddenly driven away whenever 
the bigotry, or avarice, or cruelty of rulers de- 
manded a sacrifice ; a late decree of the Russian 
empire has proclaimed to the world that their ba- 
nishments have not yet ceased. Never certain of 
permission to remain, it is the notorious peculiarity 
of this people, as a body, that they live in habitual 
readiness to remove. In this condition of universal 
affliction, how singular it is that among all people 
the Jew is " an astonishment, a proverb, a by- 
ivordJ^ Such is not the case with any other peo- 
ple. Among Christians, Heathens, and Moham- 
medans, from England to China, and thence to 
America, the cunning, the avarice, the riches, of 
the Jew are proverbial. And how wonderful have 
been their plagues ! The heart sickens at the his- 
tory of their persecutions, and massacres, and im- 
prisonments, and slavery. All nations have united 
to oppress them. All means have been employed 
to exterminate them. Robbed of property; be- 
reaved of children ; buried in the dungeons of the 



LECTURE VII. 277 

inquisition, or burned at the stake of deplorable 
bigotry ; no people ever suffered the hundredth part 
of their calamities, and still they live ! It vras 
prophecied that, as a nation, they should be re- 
stored ; consequently they vrere not only to be 
kept alive, but unmingled with the nations, every 
where a distinct race, and capable of being se- 
lected and gathered out of all the world, when the 
time for their restoration should arrive. The fulfil- 
ment of this, forms the most astonishing part of the 
whole prophecy. For nearly eighteen hundred 
years, they have been scattered and mixed up 
among all people ; they have had no temple, no 
sacrifice, no prince, no genealogies, no certain dwell- 
ing places. Forbidden to be governed by their 
own laws ; to choose their own magistrates ; to 
maintain any common policy ; every ordinary bond 
of national union and preservation has been want- 
ing ; whatever influences of local attachment, or of 
language, or manners, or government, have been 
found necessary to the preservation of other na- 
tions, have been denied to them ; all the influences 
of internal depression and outward violence which 
have ever destroyed and blotted out the nations of 
the earth, have been at work with unprecedented 
strength, for nearly eighteen centuries, upon the na- 
tion of Israel ; and still the Jews are a people — a 
distinct people — a numerous people, unassimilated 
with any nation, though mixed up with all nations. 
Their peculiarities are undiminished. Their na- 
tional identity is unbroken. Though scattered upon 



278 LECTURE VII. 

all winds, they are perfectly capable of being again 
gathered into one mass. Though divided into the 
smallest particles by numerous solvents, they have 
resisted all affinities, and may be traced, unchanged, 
in the most confused mixtures of human beings. 
The law^s of nature have been suspended in their 
case. It is not merely that a stream has held on 
its way through the waters of a lake, without losing 
the colour and characteristic marks of its own cur- 
rent ; but that a mighty river, having plunged from 
a mountain height into the depth of the ocean, and 
been separated into its component drops, and thus 
scattered to the ends of the world, and blown about 
by all winds, during almost eighteen centuries ; is 
still capable of being disunited from the waters of 
the ocean ; its minutest drops, having never been 
assimilated to any other, are still distinct, unchan- 
ged, and ready to be gathered, waiting the voice 
that shall call again the outcasts of Israel and the 
dispersed of Judah. Meanwhile, where are the 
nations among whom the Jews were scattered? 
Has not the Lord, according to his word, 7iiade a 
full end of theni?* While Israel has stood uncon- 
sumed in the fiery furnace, where are the nations 
that kindled its flames? Where the Assyrians 
and the Chaldeans 7 Their name is almost for- 
gotten. Their existence is known only to history. 
Where is the empire of the Egyptians 7 The Ma- 
cedonians destroyed it, and a descendant of its 

* Jer. xlvi. 28. 



LECTURE VII. 279 

ancient race cannot be distinguished among the 
strangers that have ever since possessed its terri- 
tory. Where are they of Macedon? The Roman 
sword subdued their kingdom, and their posterity 
are mingled inseparably among the confused popu- 
lation of Greece and Turkey. Where is the nation 
of ancient Rome, the last conquerors of the Jews, 
and the proud destroyers of Jerusalem ? The 
Goths rolled their flood over its pride. Another 
nation inhabits the ancient city. Even the lan- 
guage of her former people is dead. The Goths ! 
where are they ? The Jews ! where are they 
not ? They witnessed the glory of Egypt, and of 
Babylon, and of Nineveh; they were in mature 
age at the birth of Macedon and of Rome ; mighty 
kingdoms have risen and perished since they began 
to be scattered and enslaved ; and now they tra- 
verse the ruins of all, the same people as when 
they left Judea, preserving in themselves a monu- 
ment of the days of Moses and the Pharaohs, as un- 
changed as the pyramids of Memphis, which they 
are reputed to have built. You may call upon the 
ends of the earth, and will call in vain for one living 
representative of those powerful nations of antiqui- 
ty, by whom the people of Israel were successively 
oppressed ; but should the voice which is hereafter 
to gather that people out of all lands, be now 
heard from Mount Zion, calling for the children 
of Abraham, no less than four millions would 
instantly answer to the name, each bearing in 



280 LECTURE VII. 

himself unquestionable proofs of that noble line- 
age. 

What is this but miracle ? Connected with the 
prophecy which it fulfils, it is double miracle. 
Whether testimony can ever establish the credi- 
bility of a miracle, is of no importance here. This 
one is obvious to every man's senses. All nations 
are its eyewitnesses. 

Among the most striking and comprehensive, 
and yet particular prophecies, are those of Daniel. 
The history of the four great empires of Chaldea, 
Persia, Macedon, and Rome, is embraced in his 
predictions. We mention these, not that we in- 
tend to trace out their fulfilment, but merely, in 
passing, to insert a remarkable testimony concern- 
ing them from one of the most learned expositors 
of the prophetic scriptures, and another from the 
most learned and acute of the ancient opposers of 
Christianity. Bishop Newton, speaking of that 
portion of Daniel's prophecies which relates to the 
kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, from the death of 
Alexander the Great to the time of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, a period of 148 years, remarks : " There 
is not so complete and regular a series of their 
kings ; there is not so concise and comprehensive 
an account of their affairs ; to be found in any au- 
thor of those times. The prophecy is really more 
perfect than any history. No one historian hath 
related so many circumstances, and in such exact 
order of time, as the prophet hath foretold them ; 
so that it was necessary to have recourse to several 



LfiCTURE VII. 281 

authors, Greek and Roman, Jewish and Christian, 
and to collect here something from one, and to col- 
lect there something from another, for the better 
explaining and illustrating the great variety of par- 
ticulars contained in this prophecy."* Thus far, 
the testimony of a learned friend of Christianity. 
The corresponding testimony of a learned enemy, 
we have in the celebrated Porphyry, of the third 
century, to whom the exact correspondence be- 
tween the predictions and the events was so con- 
vincing, that he could not pretend to deny it. He 
rather laboured to confirm it ; and from the very 
exactness of the fulfilment, forged his only weapon 
of defence, in the assertion that the prophecy could 
not have been written by Daniel, but must have 
been written by some one in Judea, in the time of 
Antiochus Epiphanes.t Others after him have 
asserted the same thing, not only without any proof, 
but contrary to all the proofs which can be had in 
cases of this nature. They preferred the denial of 
the plainest historical evidence of the time when 
the prophecy was written, to the acknowledgment 
that its author must have written '' hij inspiration 
of God" Paine, however, whose willingness to 
escape the argument from prophecy cannot be ques- 
tioned, and who was probably ignorant of what 
Porphyry had acknov/ledged as to the correspond- 
ence between the words of this prophet and those 
of subsequent history, confessed the authenticity 

* Newton on Prophecy, ii. 149. I Lardner, iv. 215, 

36 



282 LECTURE VII. 

of the book of Daniel. Here, then, we have one 
famous infidel acknowledging that the prophecy 
was written at the time and by the man to whom 
it is ascribed ; and another, verifying the exactness 
of its fulfilment in the history of a subsequent age. 
Paine denied the fulfilment ; Porphyry the authen- 
ticity. Porphyry acknowledged the fulfilment; 
Paine the authenticity. "i7e taketh the ivise in 
their own craftiness.''^ 

I now call your attention to the prophecies which 
went before concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. 
They are scattered every where throughout the 
prophetic portions of the Bible. " To him bear all 
the prophets witness." None of them could lay 
down the pen of inspiration till they had written 
something, directly or indirectly, of Jesus. May 
none of us lay down our lives till we have done 
something for Jesus ! 

1. The first class of these predictions consists of 
those which relate to the time and circumstances of 
the advent of Christ. Daniel, A. C. 556, deter- 
mined the year of his coming, when 490 years 
should be accomplished from the going forth of the 
command to rebuild Jerusalem. Jacob, more than 
a thousand years before Daniel, had said it would 
be when the sceptre was departing from Judah, 
and a lawgiver from between his feet.* Haggai 
and Isaiah declared that it would be before the 
destruction of Jerusalem, and during the existence 

* Gen. xlix, 10. 



LECTURE VII. 283 

of the second temple.* Micah designated Bethle- 
hem Ephratah as his birth-place.t Blany prophe- 
cies predicted that he should come, not only of the 
stock of Judah, but of the stem of Jesse.J Isaiah 
and Malachi spake of the messenger who should 
go before him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to 
prepare his way.§ 

2. The next class of predictions, concerning our 
Lord, contains those which speak of his /i/e, suffer- 
ings, death, resurrection, and the increase of his 
kingdom. These are so numerous and particular, 
and so familiar to most readers of the Bible, that 
we shall content ourselves with a rapid summary. 
They predicted that Christ, or Messiah, would be 
born of a virgin ;|| that he should enter Jerusalem 
on the foal of an ass ;1I that in his manner of 
teaching he should be characterized by special 
gentleness and compassion;** that he would be 
distinguished as wise " to speak a word in season 
to him that is weary ;"tt that he should blind the 
eyes of the learned and proud,JJ and preach good 
tidings to the poor and despised ; that under his 
ministry the lame should be made to walk, the deaf 
to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, the 
captive to be loosed, and the dead raised up ;§§ that 
he should teach the perfect way, and be the in- 

* Is. xl. 9— xli. 27.— Hag. ii. 6— S. t Mic. v. 2. 

I Is. xi. 1. § Is. xl. 3.— Mai. iii. 1.— iv. 5. || Is. vii. 14, 
IT Zech. ix. 9. ** Is. xlii. I, 2, 3. jt Is. 1. 4. 

II Is. V. 15. §§ Is. XXXV. 5, 6— ix. 2. 



284 LECTURE VIL 

structor of the Gentiles;* that he should be a 
sacrifice for sin, be rejected of the Jews, who 
themselves should be rejected of God;t "that the 
kings of the earth and all people should worship 
him ;J but that the people who rejected him should 
continue a distinct people, and yet be scattered 
over all nations, and wander about Avithout princes, 
without sacrifices, without an altar, without pro- 
phets, looking for deliverance and not finding it, 
till a very distant period. "§ 

The correspondence between the several parti- 
culars related of the death of Christ, and the pre- 
dictions scattered through the Bible, is extremely 
striking. The evangelists, in this respect, are but 
echos of the prophets. I can give but a rapid 
sketch. These predictions include the treachery 
and awful end of Judas ;|| the precise sum of money 
for which he betrayed his Master ; and the use to 
which it was put.lF They specify not only the suf- 
ferings of Christ, but of what they should consist. 
That his back should be given to the smiters, his 
face to shame and spitting ;** that he should be put 
to death by a mode which would cause his hands 
and his feet to be pierced; that he should be 
wounded, bruised, and scourged ;tt that in his 
death he should be numbered with transgressors,JJ 

* Is. xlii. 6. t Is. liii,— viii. 14, 15. 

J Is. Ix. 10, 11, 12, &c.— liii. 12. 

§ Jer. xxxi. 36.— Hos. iii.4, 5. || Ps. xli. 9— Iv. 12, 13, 14, 15. 

ir Zech. xi. 12, 13. ** Is. 1. 6. 

tt Zech. xii. 10.— Ps. xxii. 16. JJ Is. liii. 4, 5, 8, and 12. 



LECTURE VIT. 285 

and in his sufferings, have gall and vinegar given 
him to drink ;* that his persecutors should laugh 
him to scorn, and shake their heads, reviling him, 
and saying : " He trusted in the Lord that he would 
deliver him; let him deliver him."t Although it was 
the custom to break the bones of those who were cru- 
cified, and although the bones of the thieves, crucified 
with him, were broken, yet it was predicted that 
" not a bone of him should be broken ;"J and more- 
over, that his garments should be divided, and lots 
cast for his vesture ;§ that while he should " make 
his grave with the wicked," as he did in being bu- 
ried like the wicked companions of his death, un- 
der the general leave for taking down their bodies 
from the cross, he should at the same time make his 
grave " with the rich," as was done when they bu- 
ried him in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.|| 
I might enumerate many more details of prophecy 
centering upon the life and death of Christ. What 
have been mentioned are abundantly sujflicient for 
our present argument. I have only recited a con- 
cise list of the predictions. I cannot suppose any 
of you so unacquainted with the history of Christ 
as not to be able, familiarly, to refer to all those 
passages in his life and death by which they were 

* Ps. Ixix. 21. t Ps. xxii. 7, 8. 

J Numb. ix. 12. — Ex. xii. 46. — Ps. xxxiv. 20. § Ps. xxii. 18. 

II Is. liii. 9. — The translation of this verse in Lowth's Isaiah is 
much more to the point than that of the common text : " And his 
grave was appointed with the wicked ; but with the rich man was 
his tomb." 



286 LECTURE VII, 

minutely and wonderfully fulfilled. Now, consider 
that no question is raised by any one, whether 
these predictions were made and published se- 
veral centuries before the birth of Christ. The 
enemies of Christ, his crucifiers, have been the 
librarians of these writings.* The Jews preserved 
them for us, with sacred care, for many hundreds 
of years. They were translated, from Hebrew into 
Greek, at least 200 years before Christ. The Jews 
then understood them to refer to the Messiah, as 
we do now ; and it w^as on account of some of them 
that a general expectation of the speedy coming of 
Messiah, prevailed so widely in Judea at the time 
of the public appearance of Christ. 

That all these particulars w ere most remarkably 
combined in the person, character, works, suffer- 
ings, and burial of the Lord Jesus, I need not say. 
If the predictions did not originally refer to him, 
and only happened to be accomplished in him, it 
would be reasonable to suppose that out of the innu- 
merable millions of men that have lived since they 
were published, some other individual, if not hun- 

* Augustine, in the fourth century, spoke very often of the 
great advantage which Christians had in their arguments for the 
truth of the gospel, from the subsistence and dispersion of the Jew- 
ish people, who every where bear testimon}- to the antiquity and 
genuineness of the books of the Old Testament ; so that none could 
say they were afterwards forged by Christians. He therefore calls 
the Jews the librarians of the Christians ; he compares them to ser- 
vants that carry books for the use of cliildren of noble families ; or 
that carry a chest or bag of evidence for a disputant. 

Lardner, ii. 598. 



LECTURE VII. 287 

dreds, would have appeared, exhibiting the same 
correspondence. Where is the record of vsuch an 
event? Can the person be mentioned, in whom 
there was even an approximation to the ful- 
filment exhibited in the history of Jesus 7 I need 
not say, that no one ever pretended to be able to 
find such a person. These prophecies describe a 
combination of gentleness with power ; merit with 
ignominy ; benevolence with contempt ; they bring 
together details of ancestry, of family, of birth, of 
time, of works, of sufferings, of death, which it 
were ridiculous to pretend have been united in any 
individual whose name is in the annals of man, ex- 
cept the Son of man^ Christ Jesus. 

But it maybe said, that among these predictions, 
there are some which human design might have 
brought to pass. It may be suggested, that a band 
of men undertaking to promote an imposture, and 
having these predictions before them, might have 
selected for their leader one who had been born at 
Bethlehem, of the lineage of David, and might 
have ordered his appearance at the precise time of 
the prophecy. Let this be supposed, and let us 
overlook the fact that no possible motive can be 
assigned that could induce a band of impostors to 
desire the setting up of such a cause as that of 
Christ ; still, how would imposture contrive to 
unite in its leader the fulfilment of prophecies 
which, on one hand, foretold him as eminent for 
wisdom and benevolence ; and, on the other, for 
shame and suflfering? How, on this supposition ^ 



288 LECTURE Vil. 

could all those predictions have been accomplished 
which relate to the agonies of the cross 7 Would 
a deceiver seek crucifixion for the sake of fulfilling 
prophecy 7 How was it managed that one should 
betray him ; and afterwards, out of remorse, hang 
himself ? How was it contrived that the enemies 
of Christ should measure the price of his blood at 
the exact sum predicted ; and then, that the mer- 
cenary traitor should return it to them again, and 
they should use it in purchase of the predicted 
potter's field ? How did imposture so artfully com- 
bine in its cause all the persecutors of Christ, that, 
without any design to advance its interests, they 
should have chosen precisely that mode of execu- 
tion ; those expressions of contempt ; those instru- 
ments of torture ; those companions of his suflfer- 
ings ; that mixture for his drink ; that severity to 
his body, while he w^as alive, and that forbearance 
to it after he was dead, which, if they had been 
anxious to prove him the true Messiah, foretold in 
the scriptures, would have composed the most ef- 
fectual means they could possibly employ ? Most 
evidently, the bitter adversaries of Christianity — 
not its friends — brouglit out the demonstration that 
Jesus was he to whom gave all the prophets wit- 
ness. 

And now is there any possible escape from the 
absolute necessity of acknowledging that the Spi- 
rit of God was in the writers of the Bible, and that 
this Spirit has testified of Jesus 1 Will any one 
pretend that in the idea of chance there is any ex- 



LECTURE VII. 289 

planation of the coincidences which have been 
mentioned 1 It will not be useless to spend a mo- 
ment on this matter of chance. It is conceivable 
that a prediction, uttered at a venture, confining 
its terms to but one event, and expressing that in 
a general way, may happen to result so plausibly 
as to seem like a genuine prophecy. But only let 
it descend to the minutiae of time, place, and inci- 
dents, and it is evident that the possibility of its 
success, by a fortuitous concurrence of events, will 
become extremely desperate. Hence the oracles of 
heathen antiquity always took good care to confine 
their predictions to one or two particulars, and to 
express them in the most general and ambigious 
terms. Hence, in the whole range of history, ex- 
cept the prophecies of the scriptures, there is not 
a single instance of a prediction, expressed in une- 
quivocal language, and descending to any minute- 
ness, which bears the slightest claim to the praise 
of fulfilment. But to set this in a more impressive 
light, I will quote a few sentences from one of the 
most scientific laymen of the present day. " Sup- 
pose (says Olinthus Gregory) that instead of the 
spirit of prophecy, breathing more or Icvss in every 
book of scripture, predicting events relative to a 
great variety of general topics, and delivering be- 
sides almost innumerable characteristics of the 
Messiah, all meeting in the person of Jesus ; there 
had been only ten men in ancient times who pre- 
tended to be prophets, each of whom exhibited 
only Jive independent criteria as to place, govern- 
37 



290 LECTURE VII. 

ment, concomitant events, doctrine taught, effects 
of doctrine, character, sufferings, or death ; the 
meeting of all which in one person should prove 
the reality of their calling as prophets, and of his 
mission in the character they have assigned him : 
suppose, moreover, that all events vrere left to 
chance merely, and we were to compute, from the 
principles employed by mathematicians in the in- 
vestigation of such subjects, the probability of these 
ffty independent circumstances happening at all. 
Assume that there is, according to the technical 
phrase, an eriual chance for the happening or the 
failure of any one of the specified particulars ; then 
the probability against the occurrence of all the 
particulars in any w^ay, is, that of the fiftieth power 
of two to imity ; that is, the probability is greater 
than eleven hundred and twenty -jive inillions of mil- 
lions to one, that all these circumstances do not 
turn up even at distinct periods."* But this calcu- 
lation, you must observe, specifies no particular 
period for these things to take place ; but allows, 
from the time of uttering the predictions, to the end 
of the world, for all the fifty particulars to occur. 
But if a time be fixed, at or near which they must 
happen, the immense improbability that they will 
take place exceeds all the power of numbers to 
express. This, moreover, is on the supposition of 
every thing being under the disposal of that fiction 
of unbelief, a blind chance. How infinite does the 

* Gregory's Letters. 



LECTURE VII. 291 

improbability appear, when it is remembered that 
" all events are under the control of a Being of 
matchless wisdom, power, and goodness, who hates 
fraud and deception ; who must especially hate it 
when attempted under his name and authority." 
This is enough, one Avould think, to silence forever 
all pleas of chance, as furnishing an unbeliever 
the least opportunity of escape from the evi- 
dence of prophecy. What then is the conclusion 
to which, by the considerations presented in this 
lecture, we are authorized to come 7 

First : That in the Bible, there is a great variety 
of prophecy relative to the Messiah, which has been 
so remarkably fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and so en- 
tirely unfulfilled in any other individual of whom 
we have any history, that the correspondence ne- 
cessarily proves the predictions to have been given 
by inspiration of God, and Jesus Christ to be the 
person to whom that inspiration, in the utterring 
of those predictions, referred. 

Secondly: That the Bible, in thus containing 
genuine prophecies scattered through its several 
books, contains a revelation from God, and exhibits 
numerous and wide-spread impressions of the seal 
of divine authority. 

Lastly : That Jesus Christ, being thus pointed 
out and honoured by the Spirit of God, breathing 
on the lips of holy men, who in various centuries 
before his coming concurred in rendering him their 
testimony, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 
was and is to come, no other than what he said — 



292 



LECTURE VII. 



the Son of God — the Saviour of sinners — " King of 
of kings and Lord of lords." 

" Behold (saith He) I come quickly : blessed is 
he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this 
book." " He that confesseth me before men, him 
will I also confess before my Father who is in hea- 
ven." But " how shall we escape if we neglect so 
great salvation ?" 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE VIII 



PROPHECY. 



Our blessed Lord was a prophet, as well as the 
grand subject of prophecy. Not onl}^ did he possess 
omnipotence to call up the dead from the sepulchre, 
but omniscience also to bring forth from the dark- 
ness of the future what to uninspired man lies as se- 
cret as the mysteries of death. By prophecy, as 
well as miracles, he established the divinity of his 
mission. In the latter, his appeal was to the senses 
of eyewitnesses : " The icorks that I do, they bear 
icitncss of me." In the former, it was to the testi- 
mony of subsequent history : " JVoic I tell you be- 
fore it come to pass, that lohcn it is come to pass, ye 
may believe that I am he." He predicted not only 



294 LECTURE VIII. 

his own sufferings, and death, and resurrection, but 
the manner and circumstances attending them; 
the treachery of Judas ; the denial of Peter ; the 
particulars of his ignominious treatment in the 
council of the Jews, and under the hands of Pilate 
and his soldiers. He foretold the rapid spread of 
the gospel ; the persecutions of his disciples ; the 
precise manner of Peter's martyrdom; the conti- 
nuance of John till after the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem ; the rejection of the Jews, and the bringing of 
the Gentiles into the church of God. 

But none of our Saviour's prophecies are more 
impressive than those concerning the destruction 
of Jerusalem, contained in the Gospels of Mark 
and Luke ; but most at large in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Matthew. These we select as the sub- 
ject of our consideration at present; believing we 
shall be enabled to show, by most impressive evi- 
dence, that Jesus did indeed possess the spirit of 
prophecy, and consequently was divinely commis- 
sioned in setting up the faith of the gospel. 

There is but one preliminary question to be an- 
swered, at the commencement of this investiga- 
tion : Is it well ascertained that these prophecies 
were 2>uhlished before the destruction of Jerusalem 1 

This has been already settled, in our lecture on 
the subject of authenticity ; in which it was shown 
that the several books of the New Testament 
were written in the age to which they are referred, 
and by the men whose names they bear. It will 
be sufficient to state in this place, that of the three 



LECTURE VIII. 295 

evangelists who have related these prophecies, 
Matthew and Mark are well ascertained to have 
died, and there is good reason to suppose that 
Lnke also was dead, before the destruction of Je- 
rusalem. 

The Gospel of Matthew, which contains the 
most complete account of the predictions in ques- 
tion, is universally acknowledged to have been 
written first. Its date is about the eighth year af- 
ter the death of Christ. The destruction of Jeru- 
salem being in the seventieth year of the christian 
era, the prophecies in relation to it were published 
by Matthew about thirty years, and were declared 
by our Saviour about thirty-seven years, before 
their fulfilment. Several years elapsed, also, be- 
tween the publication of the same prophecies by 
Mark and Luke, and the events to which they re- 
late. John, the only one of the four evangelists 
that lived and wrote subsequently to the ruin of 
the holy city, is the only one that omits an account 
of the predictions concerning it. But we have the 
most satisfactory evidence that no suspicion of an 
ex post facto origin can justly attach to these pro- 
phecies, in the important fact, that although fami- 
liarly quoted by the early christian writers as 
striking evidence of the prophetic character of Je- 
sus, we read of no writer against Christianity in the 
primitive centuries having attempted to paralyze 
the argument by maintaining that they were not 
published till Jerusalem was destroyed. If ene- 
mies, so near the events predicted, had nothing to 



296 LECTURE VIII. 

say ; will any deny us the privilege of proceeding 
in our present investigation unembarrassed by any 
question on this head T* 

There is a history of the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, which, if it had been composed for the express 
purpose of attesting the complete accomplishment 
of our Lord's predictions, could hardly have been 
made more appropriate to our present object. It 
was written by an eyewitness of the tragedy ; a 
learned witness ; a witness who, having been first 
an eminent leader among the troops of Judea, and 
then a prisoner to the Roman commander, and con- 
tinually kept about his person for the sake of his 
services, cannot be accused of having written with- 
out accurate information. His book was composed 
at Rome ; and having been presented by the author 
to the emperor Vespasian, and to his son Titus, 
who had commanded at the siege of Jerusalem, 
the latter not only desired its publication, but sub- 
scribed his own hand in confirmation of its cor- 
rectness. It was also presented to, and approved 
by, several Jews, who had been present at the 
scenes described.! We could not desire a more 
complete attestation of the fulfilment of our Sa- 
viour's prophecies than this book affords. And yet 
the writer was a Jew to the day of his death, and 
consequently an enemy of Christianity, and could 

* On this subject, see some excellent remarks in Paley's Evi- 
dences, Part ii. c, i. 

I Josephus' Life, § 65, p. 23. — Contr. Apion, b. i. § 9. 



LECTURE VIU. 297 

have had no design in favour of the prophetic spi- 
rit of its founder. I speak of Josephus. It is re- 
markable that one of the most minute prophecies 
in the Bible should have, from an enemy, the most 
minute of histories to show its fulfilment. No 
great event in profane history is related with so 
much attention to all the particulars connected 
with it, as is the destruction of Jerusalem by this 
Jewish writer. When we consider these things, 
and remember the extraordinary manner in which 
Josephus was several times protected from almost 
inevitable death, we may clearly discern the hand 
of a wise Providence, preparing the way of the 
gospel. A witness was preserved and chosen of 
God, to write an account of the divine judgments 
upon Jerusalem, whose testimony neither Jews nor 
Heathens could deny or suspect. We proceed to 
compare his statements with the prophecies in . 
question. 

I. Let us begin with those events which the Sa- 
viour foretold as signs of approaching desolation. 
Thus it is written : " Take heed that no man deceive 
you^ for many shall come in my 7ia77ie, saying I am 
Christy a7id, shall deceive many.''^'* Here are two dis- 
tinct predictions. Many pretenders to the character 
of the Messiah^ and their success in deceiving many. 
As the prophecy draws nearer to the chief event, it 
enlarges on this particular sign : " There shall arise 
false Christs and false prophets ^ and shall show great 

* Mat, XXIV, 4, 5. 

38 



298 LECTURE VII. 

signs and wonders. Here it is intimated, that as 
the great catastrophe should approach, these de- 
ceivers would multiply ; and that they would pre- 
tend to signs and miracles. The very places where 
they would appear, and whither they would lead 
their followers, are also pointed out. " If they 
shall say unto you, Behold he is in the desert; go not 
forth : Behold he is in the secret chambers ; believe 
it not."* 

Now it is worthy of note, that, until the day 
when these words were uttered, there had been no 
events in Jewish history in any manner correspond- 
ing with those which they describe. Two years, 
however, had not elapsed before their fulfilment 
began. Simon Magus, very soon after the cruci- 
fixion, was heard boasting himself as the Son of 
God ; deceiving the people of Samaria with sor- 
ceries ; to ichom they all gave heed, saying this man 
is the great ijoiver of God.'t Another, named Dosi- 
theus, a Samaritan, pretended that he was the 
Christ foretold by Moses. In about the tenth year 
after the death of Christ, appeared one Theudas, 
who assured the people that he was a prophet, 
promising to show a miracle in dividing the waters 
of Jordan.'! "By such speeches," says Josephus, 

* Mid. xxiv. 2(3. t Acts viii. 9, 10. 

.■{; The impostor, memionoil above, must iiot be confounded with 
him of the same name, spoken of by Gamaliel, Acts v. 36. There 
were two noted characters of the name of Theudas. The one 
referred to by Gamahcl appeared about thirty years prior to the 



LECTURE VIII. 299 

in the very words of the prophecy, '' he deceived 
manij.^'* As we approach nearer the final event, 
(A. D. 55.), these deceivers multiply. " The coun- 
try was filled with impostors who deceived the 
people," and " persuaded them to follow them into 
the icilderness ; where, as they said, they should 
see manifest wonders and signs."! Not only were 
the people thus seduced into the deserts^ but also 
into " the secret chamber's" The inner apartments 
of the temple were the secret chambers referred 
to in the prophecy. Josephus relates that a great 
multitude whom the Roman soldiers destroyed in 
the " cloisters" of the temple, had been led there 
by a false prophet, who had made a public procla- 
mation, that very day, that God commanded them 
to get upon the temple, and that there they would 
receive miraculous signs for their deliverance. 

time of the council which that learned Pharisee addressed. But 
he was a mere insurrectionist, making no pretension to any of the 
honours of that great prophet whom the Jews were expecting. 
The person referred to in the text, appeared in Judea in the time 
of Cuspius Fadus, the governor, and professed to be inspired, to be 
a prophet, and to have the gift of miracles. Judas of Galilee, or 
the Gaulonite, mentioned also bj Gamaliel, was a political parti- 
san, in opposition to the enrollment made by Cyrenius in Judea, 
whose doctrine was that the Jews were free, and should acknow- 
ledge no dominion but that of God. Neither he, nor the elder 
Theudas, can with any propriety be numbered among " false 
Christs," or " false prophets," such as the Saviour spoke of in the 
prophecy under consideration. See Lardner, i. 221 — 225. 

* Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, b. 20. e. v. 1. 

I lb. c. viii. 5. 



300 LECTURE VIII. 

At that crisis, " there was a great number of false 
prophets."* Thus have w^e all the particulars of 
the prophecy, so far as it has been quoted : — 3Iany 
false Christs and j^rophets, deceiving many; pre- 
tending to sig7is and wonders; leading their fol- 
lowers into the deserts and secret chamhers ; and 
multiplying as the destruction drew near. 

II. " Yesliall hear of wars and rumours of icars : 
see that ye be not troubled : for all tliese things must 
come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall 
rise against nation, and kingdom against king- 
dow2."t At this time, the Jews were at peace 
among themselves, and with all nations. To hu- 
man view there was so little reason to expect a 
war, that even some years after when the emperor 
Caligula ordered his statue to be set up in the 
temple, and there was danger of slaughter, on ac- 
count of the resistance of the Jews, Josephus re- 
marks that " some of them could not believe the 
stories that spoke of a war."J Nevertheless, such 
became in a short time tJie rumour of icar, that the 
fields remained luicultivated on account of the 
public anxiety. The country was soon filled with 
violence. In Alexandria, Caesarea, Damascus, 
Ptolemais, Tyre, and almost every other city in 
which many Jews and Heathens were mingled, 
fierce contentions arose, and dreadful slaughter en- 
sued. In the words of the Jewish historian : '' The 

* Josephus's Wars of the Jews, b. 6. c. v. § 2 and 3, 
t Mat. xxiv. 6, 7. % War^, &c. b. 2. c. x. § 1. 



LECTURE VIII. 301 

disorders all over Syria were terrible. For every 
city was divided into parties armed against each 
other; and the safety of the one depended on the 
destruction of the other. The days were spent in 
slaughter, and the nights in terrors."* In addition 
to these calamities, the Jewish nation rebelled 
against the Romans ; Italy was convulsed with 
contentions for the empire ; and, as a proof of the 
troublous and warlike character of the period, 
within the brief space of two years four emperors 
of Rome suffered death.! 

III. Another class of signs was predicted, as fol- 
lows : " There shall he famines^ and pestilences^ and 
earthquakes^ in dive7's p/aces."J These, together 
with the signs previously mentioned, the Saviour 
said would be " the beginning of sorrows." There 
came a famine not long before the war, which ex- 
tended all over the country of the Jews, and lasted 
with severity for several years. § Both before and 
after this there were famines in Italy, which are 
mentioned by historians of those days.|| Pesti- 
lences raged in various places, as the full time for 
Jerusalem's cup of trembling drew nigh.H Jose- 
phus speaks of one at Babylon. Five years before 
the destruction of the holy city, there was a great 
mortality at Rome, while various parts of the em- 

* Wars, &c., b. 2. c. xviii. § 1 and 2. 

t Keith on Prophecy. % Mat. xxiv. 7, 8. 

§ Acts xi. 25 — 30. Ant. b. 20, c. ii. 6. ; c. v. 2. 

11 Ant. b. 3. 0. XV. 3. IT Lardner, iii. 499. 



302 LECTURE VIII, 

pire were visited with similar calamities. EartJi- 
quakes were also among the signs of the times. Of 
these, the heathen historians, Tacitus, Suetonius, 
Philostratus, &c., speak of many. Crete, Italy, 
Asia Minor, and Judea, were visited at different 
times, and some of them repeatedly, with earth- 
quakes.* Josephus describes one, in Judea, as so 
extraordinary in its awfulness, that " any one (he 
remarks) might easily conjecture that these won- 
ders foreshewed some grand calamities that were 
coming."! 

IV. To the signs already mentioned, we find, in 
Luke's account of these prophecies, the addition of 
^\f earful sights, and great signs from heaven.'' 
These sights and signs Josephus sets himself to the 
w^ork of narrating, with as much particularity as 
if he had been specially bent upon making good 
the words of Christ. He relates that just before 
the desolating war, " a star resembling a sword 
stood over the city, and a comet that continued a 
whole year." At the feast of unleavened bread, 
and '' at the ninth hour of the night, so great a 
liglit shone round the altar and the holy house, that 
it appeared to be bright daytime; which light 
lasted for half an hour." " The eastern gate of the 
inner court of the temple, which was of brass and 
vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by 
twenty men, and had bolts fastened very deep into 
the firm floor, was seen to be opened of its own 

* Lardnev, iii. 499. j Wars, &c., b. 4. c. iv. § 5. 



LECTURE VIII, 303 

accord about the sixth hour of the night." This, 
the learned of Jerusalem understood as a signal of 
approaching desolation. Moreover "before sun- 
setting, chariots and troops of soldiers, in their ar- 
mour, were seen running about among the clouds 
and surrounding cities." " At the feast of Pente- 
cost, as the priests were going by night into the 
inner court of the temple, they felt a quaking, and 
heard a great noise, and after that they heard the 
sound as of a multitude, saying : ' Let us remove 
hence.' " But the sign which Josephus considered 
the most impressive, was that of a man named 
Jesus, who four years before the war, at a time of 
entire peace, having come to the feast of taberna- 
cles, began suddenly to cry aloud : " A voice from 
the east — a voice from the west — a voice from the 
four winds — a voice against Jerusalem and the 
holy house — a voice against the bridegrooms and 
the brides ; and a voice against the whole people." 
With this cry he went through all the city, day 
and night. No severity of punishment ; no acts of 
kindness could silence this voice. He spoke neither 
good nor ill to any, whether they gave him food or 
scourging. For seven years and five months, his 
solemn cry continued; until its warning w^as just 
about to be fulfilled. A little while before the city 
was taken, as he was going round upon the wall, 
he cried with his utmost force : '' Wo, wo to the 
city again, and to the people, and to the holy 
house ;" and just as he added, " wo to myself 



304 LECTURE VIII. 

also," a stone from one of the engines killed him 
immediately.* 

However incredible the narrative of these signs 
may seem to some, it is not a little in its confirma- 
tion that the Roman historian, Tacitus, speaking 
of the same time and place, says : " There were 
many prodigies presignifying their ruin, which 
were not to be averted by all the sacrifices and 
vows of that people. Armies were seen fighting 
in the air with brandished weapons. A fire fell 
upon the temple from the clouds. The doors of 
the temple were suddenly opened. At the same 
time there was a loud voice, declaring that the 
gods were removing, which was accompanied with 
the sound as of a multitude going out. All which 
things were supposed by some to portend great ca- 
lamities."! Whether all these things did really 
take place, or whether some or all of them were 
not the conceits of superstitious and excited minds, 
I shall not discuss ; nor is the question at all mate- 
rial to our present object. Certain it is that they 
were regarded as realities at the time, and conse- 
quently were in effect, '•^fearful sights and great 
signs from heaven^' to the Jews, whatever they 
may have been in reality. It required as much of 
the spirit of prophecy to predict that the Jews 
should believe such things to have occurred, as to 
predict any thing else that did certainly occur. 

* Wars, &c. b. 6, c. v. § 3. 

t Lardner, iii. 613. Tacit. Hiet. b. 5, c. ix. — xiu. 



LECTURE Vlll. 305 

Whatever we may conclude, therefore, concerning 
the singularly concurrent testimony of the Jewish 
and Roman historians, the prophecy of the Saviour 
was most impressively fulfilled. 

V. From the calamities of the nation and city, 
our Lord continued his prophecy to those of his 
own followers : " Before all these, they shall lay their 
hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to 
the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before 
kings and rulei^s for my name^s sake."* " They 
shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations 
for my name^s sake."'\ " I icill give you a mouth 
and ivisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be 
able to gainsay nor remi."J For the proof of the 
accomplishment of all this, the Acts of the Apostles 
afford abundant evidence. Remember how Saul 
nfiade havock of the church, entering into every house; 
jmnishing the christians in every synagogue, and 
persecuting them even unto strange cities. Peter 
and John were delivered to councils. Paul was 
brought before kings. The former were also 
imprisoned. Paul and Silas were not only impri- 
soned but beaten.^ There was given them indeed 
a loisdom, which their adversaries loere not able to 
gainsay nor resist. The very discourses of Peter 
that caused his persecution subdued thousands into 
obedience to the faith of Christ. || The murderers of 

* Luke xxi. 12. f Mat. xxiv. 9. J Luke xxi. 15. 
§ Acts viii. 3. — xxvi. 10, 11. — iv. 5. — xviii. 12. — xxiv. and v. 
— iv. 3. 11 Actsii. 41, 

39 



306 LECTURE VIII. 

Stephen were not able to resist the wisdom with which 
he spake.'* The jailor that incarcerated Paul and 
Silas in the evening, was their convert before the 
morning.! Felix trembled, and Agrippa was al- 
most persuaded to be a Christian, under the speech 
of Paul. Stephen and James were put to death. 
There is reason to believe that none of the original 
apostles or evangelists, but John, died a natural 
death. Christians were counted as the filth of the 
iDorld, being literally hated for the very name they 
bore. About six years before the destruction of Je- 
rusalem arose the tremendous persecution under 
Nero, when it was enough that any one was called 
by the name of Christian, to lead him to torture. 
Tacitus bears witness, not only to their exquisite 
sulferings, but also to the fact that they were held 
in universal hatred on account of their religion and 
name.J 

VI. " Then shall many be offended, and shall be- 
tray one another, and hate one another ; and because 
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall icaa; 
cold"^ The apostle of the Gentiles, in his epistles, 
complains of Demas, and Phygellus, and Hermo- 
t^enes, and many others in Asia, who turned away 
from him ; and that when he first appeared at the 
bar of Nero, no man stood with him, but all forsook 
//im.|| And Tacitus, speaking of the persecution 

* Acts vi. 10. t Acts XVI. 32—4. 

I Larilnur, ill. 498. Tac. Ann. 15, c. 14 

>^ Milt, xxiv 10—13 I! 2Tim. i 15.— vi 10.— iv lf> 



LECTURE VIII. 307 

by Nero, says : " At first ^ those ivho were seized con- 
fessed their sect; and then^ by their indication^ a 
great multitude were convicted.'"* 

VII. Immediately after the prediction of the out- 
ward persecutions and internal defections by which 
the servants of Christ were to be troubled, there fol- 
lows this remarkable prophecy : " This gospel of 
the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a, 
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end 
come."t The end, referred to, was that of the 
Jewish polity, which entirely ceased at the de- 
struction of the Jewish metropolis and temple. 
Jesus prophesied that before this, that is, in forty 
years from the time when he uttered these words, 
the gospel would be preached in all the world. Of 
all that was then in futurity, what could have been 
more improbable, or to human view, more impossi- 
ble than this 7 The gospel was then received but 
by a handful of unlettered Jews. In a few days 
after, its author was crucified as a malefactor ; his 
disciples were scattered and discouraged ; his ene- 
mies triumphant, and the gospel seemed at an end. 
When the infant church was gathered together in 
Jerusalem, immediately after the ascension of its 
Head, the number of the disciples that could be 
collected, was but one hundred and twenty. What, 
but the omniscience of God could have foreseen, 
that in less than forty years that church would be 
extended into all countries of the known world ? 

* Ann. b. xv, f Mat. xxiv. 14. 



308 LECTURE VIII. 

But thus it came to pass: "It appears from the 
writers of the history of the church, that before 
the destruction of Jerusalem, the gospel was not 
only preached in the Lesser Asia, and Greece, and 
Italy, the great theatres of action then in the world, 
but was likewise propagated as far northward as 
Scythia, as far southward as Ethiopia, as far east- 
ward as Parthia and India, as far westward as 
Spain and Britain."* The epistles of Paul, in the 
New Testament, were directed to churches then 
flourishing in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, 
Philippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica. In the Epis- 
tle to the Romans, he asserts that the christian faith 
was then (ten years before the end) ^^ spoken of 
throughout the world. ''^'\ To the Colossians, about 
three years after, he asserts that " the gospel had 
(then) been iweached to every creature under hea- 
ven"X meaning that to all nations, without distinc- 
tion, it had been published. Tacitus bears witness 
that, in the sixth year before the destruction of Je- 
rusalem (Nero's persecution), the religion of Christ 
had not only extended over Judea, but through 
Rome also; and that its followers were then so 
numerous, that "« vast multitudc^^ were appre- 
hended and condemned to martyrdom.^ Thus, im- 
possible as such an event must have seemed at the 
time when this prophecy was uttered, the end did 
not come until the gospel of tlie kingdom of Christ 

* Newton, ii 2.'i7, 8. | Rom. i. 18. 

t Col. i. 23. ^S Tac. Ann. 1.. xv 



LECTURE VIII. 309 

loas ]ireached ^^in all the looiidJ^ We know not 
which should be considered the most impressive 
evidence that God was with the gospel ; this loon- 
derful fact, brought to pass by such means, and in 
the face of such universal and deadly opposition ; 
or the 2^f'02^hetic eye by which the Saviour pre- 
dicted, in circumstances so unpromising, that thus 
it would be, 

VIII. The next prophetic sign brings us almost 
to the awful catastrophe. " When ye shall see Je- 
rusalem comiiassed ivith arinies ;" or, as the expres- 
sion is in Matthew : " When ye shall see the abomi- 
nation of desolation stand in the holy place" " then 
knoio that the desolation thereof is nigh" " Then 
let them which he m Judea flee to the mountains : let 
him that is on the house-top not come doicn to take 
any thing out of his house : neither let him which is 
in the field return hack to take his clothes"* 

By the abomination of desolation standing in the 
holy i^lace, Matthew expresses the same thing as 
when Luke speaks of Jerusalem being compassed 
with armies. The standards of the Roman armies 
had on them images to which idolatrous worship 
was paid, and which were therefore an abomina- 
tion to the Jews. On this account, we read that a 
Roman general, when conducting his army through 
Judea towards Arabia, was besought by the prin- 
cipal Jews to lead it another way.t ^' Every idol 

* Luke xxi. 20. Mat. xxiv 15, 16, 17, 18, 
t Ant, 1), 18, c. vi. § 3. 



310 LECTURE VIII. 

and every image/' .says Chrysostom; " was called 
an abomination among the Jews." These idola- 
trous ensigns being connected with a desolating 
army, constituted them the abomination of desola- 
tion ; and w^hen the Roman army planted its 
standards around the holy city, the abomination of 
desolation literally stood in the holy place, or on 
holy ground. This the Saviour predicted. It was 
to be the signal to Christians that the desolation 
of Jerusalem was nigh. Then they were to escape 
with haste to the mountains. The warning im- 
plied that, even after the city was encompassed 
with armies, they would have an opportunity of 
escape ; but, at the same time, that the opportu- 
nity would be brief. All this came to pass. One 
would suppose that the Christians, in having de 
layed till the city was surrounded with a besieging 
host, would thus have waited till all escape was 
cut off. But a remarkable providence took care 
that they should await the sign, and yet obey the 
admonition to flee. Cestius Gallus, the Roman 
general, at the commencement of the war, besieged 
the city ; took possession of the suburbs ; en- 
camped over against the royal palace ; and might 
easily, Josephus says, have got within the walls, 
and won the city. Indeed " many of the principal 
men were about to open the gates to him." But 
although the abomination of desolation was thus in 
the holy place, the followers of Christ were there 
also. The time of the end, therefore, was not yet 
conir An oppnriunitv nmst W found for them to 



LECTURE VIII. 311 

flee. The Lord sees to this. Just as the city was 
ready to open its gates to the Roman chief, " he 
recalled his soldiers from the place — without ha- 
ving received any disgrace ; and retired from the 
city, loithout any reason in the world.'' ^ This the 
Jewish historian expressly ascribes to a special 
interposition of Providence ; though he knew not 
its object. It could be accounted for on no mili- 
tary or prudential considerations. Josephus relates 
that many principal men of Jerusalem embraced 
this opportunity to depart from the city as from a 
sinking ship.* A short time after, when the Ro- 
man armies were again approaching with the abo- 
mination of desolation towards the holy place, our 
historian states that a great multitude fled to the 
mountains.'t Among these, were probably the dis- 
ciples of Christ. But we learn more certainly from 
ecclesiastical historians, of the early centuries, 
that, at this crisis, all the followers of Christ took 
refuge in the mountainous regions beyond Jordan , 
thus obeying the prophetic warning of their Lord ; 
so that there is no where any mention of a single 
Christian having perished in the siege and destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem.J But as the Saviour fore- 
warned them : what they were to do, they had to 
do quickly. For as soon as Jerusalem was again 
encompassed with armies, it was surrounded en- 
tirely with a wall, so that, in the words of the his- 



* Wars, b. 2. c xx. § I. j lb, b -i c 
J Lardner, lii. 607. Newton, u. p 2t»6, 



312 LECTURE Vlll. 

toriaii, " all kojje of escarping was now cut off from 
the Jeios."* 

Who the enemy would be, and the power, and 
fury, and universal spread of his desolations, the 
Saviour foretold, by the use of this proverbial ex- 
pression: '' Wheresoever the carcase is, there will 
the eagles he gathered together.^^1[ Prophecy often 
speaks a great deal in a few words. The carcass 
was the Jewish nation given over, as thoroughly 
corrupt and forsaken of God, to be devoured as by 
birds of prey. An army is distinguished by its ban- 
ners. They constitute its characteristic insignia. 
The banners of the Roman army were surmounted 
by eagles — emblems of strength, of swiftness, and 
of ferocity. By these the Saviour described it as 
that which would desolate Jerusalem. Literally, 
wherever the carcass was, these eagles were ga- 
thered. Josephus testifies that all parts of the land 
participated in the desolations of Jerusalem.^ The 
legions of Rome, like flocks of birds of ])rey, flew 
from city to city, spreading devastation and slaugh- 
ter wherever they planted their standards. With 
eagle-swiftness, they descended upon the unprepared 
population ; with eagle-strength, they triumphed 
over every opposition ; with eagle-fierceness, tliey 
devoured and tore in pieces, sparing neither age 
nor sex, sending into hopeless slavery the few to 
whom the sword denied its mercy. The melan- 

* Wars, b. 5. c. xu. <^S 2, 3. t M^ti. xxiv. 2b. 
■j: Waiia, b. 4. c. viii. § 1. 



LECTURE VllI, 313 

choly record of Jotapata relates that all its popula- 
tion were slain but infants and women. These 
were carried into bondage. The rest, forty thou- 
sand, were slaughtered. Joppa was demolished ; 
the neighbouring villages were destroyed; the 
whole region was laid waste. Of all the popula- 
tion of Gamala, two women alone escaped. Here, 
not even infants were spared the sword. Such was 
the extreme awfulness of the slaughter, that many 
Jews in preference threw their children, their wives, 
and themselves, from the hill, on which the citadel 
was built, into the deep abyss below. The num- 
ber that perished thus, was computed at five thou- 
sand. These are but a few cases out of the many 
which illustrate the perfect accomplishment of the 
prediction before us.^ 

X. But our Lord foretold not only the enemy 
by whom Jerusalem would be destroyed, but the 

* How minutely were the enemy and his desolations described 
by Moses as much as 1500 years before the war ! " The Lord 
shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the 
earth, as swift as the eagle flieth ; a nation whose tongue thou shalt 
not understand ; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not 
regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young : and 
he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until 
thou be destroyed : which also shall not leave thee either corn, 
wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until 
he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy 
gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou 
trustedst, throughout all thy land : and he shall besiege thee in 
all thy gates throughout all thy land which the Lord thy God 
hath given thee. Deut. xxviii. 49 — 52, 

40 



314 LECTURE VIII. 

means by which it would be taken. " The days 
(said he) shall come uj)on thee that thine enemies 
shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee 
round, and keep thee in on every side* A trench 
and a wall or embankment always go together in 
military operations. Both were certainly intended 
here. But it was exceedingly improbable that 
such a measure would be resorted to in the siege 
of Jerusalem. The nature of the ground, and the 
great extent of the city, rendered it extremely dif- 
ficult. It had never been attempted in the pre- 
vious sieges of the same place. It was not neces- 
sary, because, had the Roman general been content 
to wait a little, the famine and the contending fac- 
tions within the city would soon have delivered it 
into his possession. After all, it was contrary to 
the advice of his chief men, and was adopted only 
because a more protracted siege would have been 
less glorious. The higher cause however w^as, that 
he was God's instrument unwittingly, to fulfil the 
words of Christ. Titus must confirm the prophetic 
character of Jesus. By building a wall about Je- 
rusalem, he was to build up the defence of the gos- 
pel. The city was therefore literally compassed 
round, and its inhabitants were kept in on every side 
by a wall and trench, put up by the troops of Titus, 
and measuring about five miles in circumference. 
Josephus is very particular in stating precisely the 
direction of the wall in its whole circuit.! 

* Luke xix. 43. f Wars, &c., b. 5. c. xii. § 2. 



LECTURE VIII. 315 

XI. " These he the days of vengeance^'' said the 
Lord ; "/or then shall he great tribulation, such as 
was not from the heginning of the ivorld to this 
time, nor ever shall 6e."* Days of vengeance, in- 
deed, they were, when all that was written and 
threatened in Moses and the prophets was fulfilled. 
As if Josephus had written with the very words of 
the Saviour in view, he bears record, that in his 
opinion, " no other city ever suffered such miseries ; 
nor loas there ever a generation more fruitful in 
icickedness, from the beginning of the ivorld" " It 
appears to me, that the misfortunes of all men from 
the beginning of the world, if they be compared to 
these of the Jews, are not so considerable." " For 
in reality it was God who condemned the whole 
nation, and turned every course that was taken for 
their preservation to their destruction." It is im- 
possible to describe the truth in this case. " The 
multitude of those who perished (says our histo- 
rian) exceeded all the destructions that man or 
God ever brought on the world."! At the com- 
mencement of the siege, immense multitudes hav- 
ing come up from all parts of the country to the 
feast of the passover, the nation, literally, was 
crowded into Jerusalem ; so that the city was sup- 
posed to have in it upwards of two million, seven 
hundred thousand souls. The miseries endured by 

* Luke xxi. 22. 

I Wars, &c. b. 5, c. x. § 5. — Preface to Wars, § 4. — Wars, b, 
6, c. xiii. § 4. — b. 6, c. ix, § 4. 



316 LECTURE viir, 

this imprisoned multitude are minutely detailed in 
the history of the siege. Famine commenced, and 
numbered its thousands of unburied and loathsome 
victims. This destroyer raged so widely that the 
people devoured their shoes and girdles, the sol- 
diers the leather on their shields. Wisps of old 
straw were turned into food. That which before 
they could not endure to see, they now consented 
to eat. United to these desolations were the re- 
morseless cruelties of contending factions. The 
city was filled with robbers, who divided its popu- 
lation into parties, more destructive than all the 
soldiery of the besiegers. Filled with rage and 
instigated by hunger, they alike refused to be at 
peace with each other, or to capitulate to the com- 
mon enemy. They robbed the temple ; slew the 
priests at the altar ; defiled the sanctuary with a 
sea of blood. To keep each other from food, they 
fired storehouses containing provisions for a siege 
of many years. Whenever any corn appeared^ 
bands of robbers instantly seized it. They 
searched every house in which they suspected 
there was food. Parents snatched it from their 
children ; children spoiled it from the mouths of 
their parents. There was a lady of high birth and 
much wealth, who had come from the country, and 
was kept in Jerusalem by the siege. All her ef- 
fects, and all the food she had saved for herself and 
children, had been taken by the prowling bands 
that continually ranged the streets for prey. By 
imprecations and reproaches, she endeavoured in 



LECTURE VIII, 317 

vain to provoke them to take her life as well as 
"bread. At last she prepared a feast. Keen hun- 
ger found out a lamb. A mother's desperation 
slew and served it. Having consumed a part, the 
rest was concealed. The smell of food soon 
brought in the wolves. They threatened instant 
death unless she discovered it. With hitter irony 
she assured them that a fine portion had been saved 
for them, and then uncovered what remained of the 
lamb. It ivas the half-eaten body of her infant son. 
Struck motionless with horror, they would not par- 
take of it. Then she upbraided them as pretend- 
ing to more tenderness than a woman, and more 
compassion than a mother. All the city, and the 
whole Roman camp, were filled with astonishment 
at this horrid evidence of the reigning wretched- 
ness; so that the dead were envied for having 
escaped the sight of such miseries.* But the woe 
went on. The prisoners taken in endeavouring to 
desert the city were nailed on crosses by the Ro- 
man soldiers, '' some one way, some another, as it 

* How exactly did Moses, at least fifteen hundred years before, 
depict this very scene ! He described even the rank, quaUty, and 
habits of the unhappy woman. " The tender and delicate woman 
among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot 
upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be 
evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and to- 
ward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out 
from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall 
bear : for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the 
siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in 
thy gates." — Deut. xxviii. 56, 67. 



318 LECTURE VIII, 

were in jest," around the outside of the walls, 
"till so great was the number, that room was 
wanting for crosses, and crosses were wanting for 
bodies."* Thus had the Jews, forty years before, 
crucified the Lord of glory without the walls, 
with cruel jesting and bitter mockery .t Those 
who continued within the city took refuge in ca- 
verns, aqueducts, sewers, and other secret places, 
to escape from one another. Titus, as he beheld 
the dead bodies that had been thrown from the 
walls into the valleys, " lifted up his hands to hea- 
ven, and called God to witness that this was not 
his doing."J The number of those who perished 
during these " days of vengeance" is computed by 
Josephus at upwards of one million, three hundred 
thousand; and of these, 1,150,000 were of Jerusa- 
lem, beside ninety-seven thousand carried into 
slavery, and an innumerable multitude who pe- 
rished uncounted in various places, through famine, 
banishment, and other miseries."§ Add to this 
destruction of life, the complete ruin of their holy 
city and magnificent temple, dearer to the Jews 
than life ; add moreover the universal desolation 
and almost depopulation of Judea; and you will 
find no difficulty in interpreting the Saviour's pre- 
diction of "a tribulation such as icas not from the 
beginning of the worldJ^ It was when our com- 

* Wars, &c. b. 6, c. iii. § 4.— b. 5, c. xi. § 1. 
I " His blood be on \i.s ami on our children." 
I B. 6, c. xii. § 4. § Lardnor, iii. 529. 



LECTURE VIII. 319 

pasvsionate Redeemer had all this in full prospect 
that "he beheld the city" from the momit of 
Olives, " and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst 
known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that 
make for thy peace, but now they are hid from 
thine eyes."* How did the anticipation of all this 
misery affect him, when, as he was going to his 
cross, he turned to the women who wept and 
wailed because of him, and said : " Daughters of 
Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your- 
selves and your children ; for behold the days are 
coming, in the which they will say. Blessed are the 
barren and the wombs that never bare, and the paps 
which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to 
say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills, 
cover us !"t Who can help reflecting here upon 
that solemn question, " What shall the end be of 
them that obey not the gospel of God?" 

XII. We come now to the work of destruction, 
which forms the most remarkable particular in this 
wonderful prophecy. The ruin of the city was 
foretold in these words : " They shall lay thee even 
with the ground^ and thy children ivithin thee : and 
they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another 
that shall not be thrown down.^X The ruin of the 
temple was foretold as follows. As the disciples 
were showing to Jesus the stupendous buildings of 
the temple, he answered : " Verily I say unto yoUj 

* Luke xix. 42. f Luke xxiii. 28, 29, 30. 

t Luke xix. 44. 



320 LECTURE VIII. 

there shall not he left here one stone upon another 
that shall not he thrown down^^* Most wonderfully 
was the spirit of prophecy manifested in these 
words. Every thing conspired to make the 
events appear improbable, and to prevent their oc- 
currence, when the time predicted had arrived. 
Jerusalem was surrounded with three massive 
walls of immense strength, rendering its garrison 
almost unassailable, except by famine, or pesti- 
lence, or internal discord. t Never were men more 
perfectly devoted to the defence of a city than 
those of Jerusalem. None cared for life at the ex- 
pence of her ruin. The garrison was ten times the 
number of the besiegers. It Avas, therefore, ex- 
ceedingly improbable that the city would even be 
entered by the Romans. Such was the testimony 
of Titus, as he looked around upon its towers. 
'' We have certainly," said he, "had God for our 
helper in this war. It is God who has ej ected the Jews 
out of these fortifications. For what could the 
hands of men, or any machines, do towards throw- 
ing down such fortifications." j But it was equally 
improbable, even if the city were taken, that such 
complete destruction would be made of all therein. 

* Mat. xxiv. 2. 

t Gibbon, speaking of tlic slrength of Jerusalem at tliis time, 
says : " The craggy grounii might supersede the necessity of forti- 
fications, and her walls ami towers would have fortified the most 
accessible plain." Decliuc and Fall, vol. viii. c. Iviii. p. 144. 

X Wars, b. G. c. ix. § 1. 



LECTURE VIII. 321 

Think of the difliculty of completely destroying such 
an immense extent of triple wall, and of buildings 
within. Think of the temple ! What a pile to be 
laid low ! Its walls enclosed more than nineteen 
acres ; that of the eastern front rose to a height of 
nearly eight hundred feet from its base in the valley 
beneath. In this, and the other walls, the stones 
were immense, the largest measuring sixty-five feet 
in length, eight in height, and ten in breadth. How 
great the difficulty of a thorough levelling of such 
a structure, even under the instigation of the 
strongest motive ! But what motive was likely to 
excite the Romans to such destruction? They 
prided themselves upon a veneration for the arts, 
and upon the sacred care with which, in all their 
conquests, the monuments of architectural taste 
were protected. The temple was emphatically 
such a monument. The immensity of its walls ; 
its splendid gates and beautiful marble colonnades ; 
the glory of its golden sanctuary ; the grandeur of 
its whole appearance ; and all its associations of 
antiquity and of sacredness, constituted the temple 
of Jerusalem precisely such an object as Roman 
commanders had always gloried in preserving 
from the desolations of conquest. Even barba- 
rians were used to spare such monuments in their 
march of devastation. Genseric, when, with his 
Moors and Vandals, he had sacked the city of 
Rome, spoiled her wealth and carried away the 
ornaments of her temples and capitol, but spared 
41 



322 



LECTURE VIII. 



her noble structures;* and to tliis day, after all 
the scenes of war that have raged through her 
streets, the pillar of Trajan, the triumphal arch of 
Titus, the unmutilated Pantheon, and the noble 
Colisseum, with numerous other monuments of 
art, attest the ancient glory of the mistress of the 
world. How often have hostile armies filled the 
streets of Athens, and hordes of Gothic barbari- 
ans encamped amidst her sanctuaries ; and yet the 
beautiful temple of Theseus is scarcely injured, as 
a model of architecture, and the Parthenon, 
though defaced and robbed, remains, a noble ex- 
ample still of the grandeur and purity of Athenian 
taste in the age of Phidias and Pericles. How im- 
probable then must it have seemed to one behold- 
ing the temple in the days of our Lord, that Ro- 
mans should lay it even with the ground. Much 
more improbable, had the cultivated taste, and the 
mild, amiable, and humane disposition of Titus, 
their commander, been anticipated. Still more im- 
probable, when it is remembered how strongly he 
was bent upon saving the city and temple from 
destruction ; how he employed all the means in his 
power to induce the Jews to surrender, before 
such extremities were necessary.t When he had 
reached the temple, and saw the danger it was in 
of being sacrificed to the obstinacy of its defenders 

"* Gibbon, v. 5. 

t Wars, &c., b. 5. c. viii. § 1. c. ix. § 2. c xi. § 2. b. 6. c. 
ii. § 1. 



LECTURE VIII. 



323 



and the rage of his own soldiers, he was " deeply 
affected," and appealed to the gods, to his army, 
and to the Jews, that he did not force them to 
defile the holy house. "If (said he) yon will 
change the place whereon you will fight, no Ro- 
man shall either come near your sanctuary, or 
offer any affront to it ; nay, I will endeavour to 
preserve your holy house whether you will or 
not."* But the Lord of that temple had said : 
" Behold your house is left unto you desolate" God 
would not suffer the prophetic words of his son to 
returnunto him void. Now, therefore, even the au- 
thority of Titus was of no avail with his troops. Now 
the discipline of the Roman legion was broken up 
that all that was written might be fulfilled. When 
the fire first reached the temple, their commander 
despatched a force to extinguish it. As it broke 
out again, he again used his authority to save the 
edifice. A soldier, disobeying the will of his ge- 
neral, threw fire into the golden window of the 
inner sanctuary. At this, Titus, followed by all 
his chief officers, rushed to the place, and by voice, 
and gesture, and force, exerted himself most ear- 
nestly to prevail with his troops to spare the build- 
ing. He ordered a centurion to punish the disobe- 
dient. But neither his threatenings nor persua- 
sions could arrest their fury. At last, a soldier 
taking advantage of his absence, when he had gone 
out of the sanctuary to restrain the others, " threw 

* Wars, b. 6. c. ii. § 4, 



324 LECTURE VIII. 

fire upon the holy gate in the dark; whereby the 
flame burst out from within the lioly house imme- 
diately."* And thus was it devoured by the fire. 
And now orders Avere given to demolish to the 
foundation tlie whole city and temple. Nothing 
was spared of the former but three towers, and so 
much of the wall as was required for a shelter to 
the garrison to be stationed there. " As for all the 
rest of the whole circumference of the city, it w^as 
so thoroughly laid even with the ground, by those 
who dug it up to the foundation, that there w^as 
nothing left to make those who came thither be- 
lieve it had ever been inhabited.''t In quest of 
plunder, the soldiers literally turned up the ground 
on which the city and temple had stood, searching 
the sewers and aqueducts. Last of all, it is re- 
lated by the Jewish Talmud and Maimonides, that 
a captain of the army of Titus (Terentius Rufus), 
" did with a ploughshare tear up the foundations 
of the temple."J " A ploughshare," says Gibbon, 
" was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a sign 
of perpetual interdiction." Thus literally fulfilling 
that prophecy of Micah : " Therefore shall Zion, 
for your sakes, be ploughed as a field, and Jeru- 
salem become heaps, and tlie mountain of the 
house as the liigh ])laces of the forest."§ How for- 
cibly is the perfect fulfilment of the Saviours pre- 
diction illustrated in tlic speech of Eleazar to a 

* Wars, b. 6. c. iv. § 2, 3, 4, .5, &c. t i'^-, ^- 7. c. i. § 1. 
I Whitby on Mat. xxiv. 2. § ]\Iic. iii. 12. 



LECTURE VIII. 325 

remnant of Jews in the city of Masada : " Where 
is now that great city, fortified by so many walls, 
and fortresses, and towers; which could hardly 
contain the instruments prepared for the war, and 
had so many ten thousands of men to defend it ? 
Demolished to the very foundations ; and hath no- 
thing left but the camp of the destroyers among its 
ruins ; some unfortunate old men also lie upon the 
ashes of the temple, and a few women are there 
preserved alive, by the enemy, for our bitter shame 
and reproach."* 

XIII. But the prophecy of our Lord did not end 
with the destruction of the city and of the civil 
and ecclesiastical polity of the Jews. His omni- 
scient eye followed the unhappy race in their sub- 
sequent dispersions and afflictions. " They shall 
fall by the edge of the sivord, and shall be led away 
captive into all nations^^ How^ many fell by the 
edge of the sword, in fulfilment of these words, I need 
not state. Blood flowed through the streets of Je- 
rusalem like a river. But many who escaped the 
sword were led away captive into various parts of 
the earth. Before the city was taken, it is related 
that an " immense number" of deserters, having fal- 
len into the hands of the besiegers, were sold " with 
their wives and children.''^ Besides ninety-seven 
thousand, who went into slavery from Jerusalem 
alone, there were sent from Tarichea to Nero, six 

* Wars, b. 7, c. viii, § 7. | Luke xxi, 24. 

I Wars, b. 6, c. viii. § 2. 



326 LECTURE VIII. 

thousand choice young men, while thirty thousand, 
from the same place, were sold. Similar convoys 
of slaves were marched from many other desolated 
towns. Of the captives from Jerusalem, the tall 
and handsome were carried to Rome to grace the 
triumphal entry of Titus. Of the remainder, 
many were sent as slaves to the public works in 
Egypt ; but the greater number were distributed 
through the Roman provinces, literally "into all 
nations,^^ to be slain by gladiators, or exposed to 
wild beasts in the shows of the amphitheatre. 
From that time to the present, the history of all 
the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is filled 
with testimonies to the prophetic spirit of him, who, 
when Jerusalem was in peace and strength, pre- 
dicted the approaching and yet existing calamities 
of her sons. In what country of the world, as 
then known, have they not been persecuted and 
enslaved ? 

But in addition to the captivity of the people, 
" Jerusalem (said the Lord) shall be trodden doicn of 
the Gentiles until tlie times of the Gentiles he ful- 
filled.^^ It is well ascertained, by corresponding 
passages of the Bible, that by this expression, the 
times of the Gentiles being fulfilled^ was intended 
the universal ingathering of the nations to the faith 
of Christ. This has not yet arrived. Jerusalem is 
therefore still trodden down of the Gentiles, just as 
she has been, ever since the ploughshare of the Ro- 
man desolation was lirst driven over the ruins of 
her temple. The hand of Providence, in the unin- 



LECTURE VIII. 327 

terrui)ted fulfilment of this prediction down to the 
present time, is wonderfully manifest. Two things 
are specially to be noted in the prophecy : First, 
that the Jews icere never to he re-established in Jeru- 
salem ; and secondly, that it was not only to be in 
possession of, but to be " trodden doivn of the Gen- 
tiles" until the times of the Gentiles should be ful- 
filled. That the Jews have never been re-esta- 
blished in Jerusalem since its destruction, has not 
been owing to any want of desperate effort on 
their part ; nor because the power of the Gentiles 
has not been vigorously employed in their behalf. 
In about sixty-four years after their almost total 
expulsion from Judea, under the conquest of Ti- 
tus ; Jerusalem was partially rebuilt by the empe- 
ror Adrian. A Roman colony was settled there, 
and all Jews were forbidden, on pain of death, 
to enter therein, or even to look at the city from a 
distance. Soon after this, the Jews revolted with 
great fury, and made a powerful effort to recover 
their city from the heathen. They w^ere not sub- 
dued again without great loss to the Romans, and 
immense slaughter among themselves. 

In the reign of Constantine the Great, their ef- 
fort was repeated, and terminated as before, in per- 
fect defeat, with increased massacre and oppres- 
sion. But in the person of the nephew of Con- 
stantine, their zeal for the rebuilding of their tem- 
ple was associated with the determination of the 
emperor Julian to overthrow Christianity ; and be- 
tween the power of a Roman sovereign with a vie- 



328 LECTURE VIII. 

torioiis army at his feet, and the exulting entliii- 
siasnri of the whole remnant of the Jewish people, 
a union was formed for the single object of rearing 
up the temple with its ancient ritual, and of plant- 
ing around it a numerous colony of Jews, which, 
to all human judgment, bore the assurance of com- 
plete sucrcess. The grand object of Julian was to 
convert " the success of his undertaking into a spe- 
cious argument against the faith of prophecy, and 
the truth of revelation."* A decree was issued to 
his friend Alypius, that the temple of Jerusalem 
should be restored in its pristine beauty. To the 
energies of Alypius, was joined the support of the 
governor of Palestine. At the call of the empe- 
ror, the Jews from all the provinces of the empire 
assembled in triumphant exultation on the hills of 
Zion. Their wealth, strength, time, even their 
most delicate females, were devoted with the ut- 
most enthusiasm to the preparation of the ground, 
covered then with rubbish and ruins. But was the 
temple rebuilt ? The foundations were not en- 
tirely laid ! Why ? Was force deficient 7 or zeal, 
or wealth, or perseverance, when Roman power 
and Jewish desperation were associated ? Nothing 
was lacking. " Yet (says Gibbon) the joint ef- 
forts of power and enthusiasm were unsuccessful, 
and the ground of the Jewish temple still conti- 
nued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of ruin 
and desolation." There was an unseen hand. 



LECTURE VIII. 



329 



which neither Jews nor emperors coukl overcome. 
The simple account of the defeat of this threaten- 
ing enterprise of infidelity is thus given by a hea- 
then historian of the day, a soldier in the service, 
and a philosopher in the principles of Julian. 
" Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the 
province, urged with vigour and diligence the exe- 
cution of the work, horrible balls of fire breaking 
out near the foundation, with frequent and reite- 
rated attacks, rendered the place, from time to 
time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted 
workmen ; and the victorious element continuing 
in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as 
it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertak- 
ing was abandoned."* " Such authority should 
satisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous 
mind" acknowledges even the sceptical Gibbon. 
He cannot but own that " an earthquake, a whirl- 
wind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned and 
scattered the new foundations of the temple, are 
attested, with some variations, by contemporary 
and respectable evidence." One writer, who pub- 
lished an account of this wonderful catastrophe, 
in the very year of its occurrence, boldly declared, 
says Gibbon, that its iwetematural character loas 
not disputed^ even by the infidels of the day."] An- 
other speaks of it thus : " We are witnesses of it ; 
for it happened in our time, not long ago. And 

* Ammianus Marcellinus. 
I Gibbon's Dec. and Fall, vol. iii. chap, xxiii. 
42 



330 LECTURE VIII. 

now, if you should go to Jerusalem, you may see 
the foundations open ; and if you inquire the rea- 
son, you will hear no other than that just men- 
tioned."* 

Whether this attempt of Julian was defeated by 
miraculous interposition, is a question which our 
present object docs not require us to argue. t Two 
things are certain. First : That the power and 
wealth of the Gentiles were united with the de- 
voted enthusiasm of the Jews, to defeat the pro- 
phecy of Christ, by rebuilding the temple, and by 
re-establishing its ritual, and by reorganizing a 
Jewish population as possessors of Jerusalem. Se- 
condly : That contrary to all expectation ; when 
nothing was lacking for the work, and none in the 
world lifted a finger against it, it was suddenly 
abandoned, on account of sundry alarming and sin- 
gular phenomena bursting from the original site of 
the temple, by which even the fanaticism of the 
Jews was deterred, and the enmity of Julian to the 
gospel, defeated. These undeniable facts are suffi- 
cient to show, with impressive evidence, the liand 
of God protecting the prophetic character of oui- 
Lord, When, in connection with these, you con- 
sider the great anxiety so universally felt among 
the Jews of all centuries, to enjoy the privilege of 
living and dying in Jerusalem ; that no risk of life, 

* Chrysosloin. Sec Lardner, iv. 324. 

t See the miraculous characlcr of tliis event very ably advo- 
cated in Bishop Wavburtou's Julian. 



LECTURE VIIL 331 

or sacrifice of property, would be thought too great 
for the purpose of once more setting up the gates 
and altars of the holy city ; that the nation is now 
as numerous as at any period of its ancient glory ; 
and yet that during almost the whole period since 
the destruction of Jerusalem, so entirely have Jews 
been prevented from living on her foundations, that 
they have had to purchase, dearly, the permission 
to come within sight of her hills ; and to this day 
are taxed and oppressed to the dust, as the cost of 
being allowed to walk her streets, and look, at a 
distance, upon her mount Moriah ; you will ac- 
knowledge that the prediction of our Saviour, in 
reference to their exclusion from Jerusalem, has 
been not only most strikingly fulfilled, but fulfilled 
in spite of the most powerful causes and efforts for 
its defeat. 

But it was predicted that Jerusalem should not 
only be possessed by the Gentiles, but " trodden 
down" by them, till their times should be fulfilled. 
What the soldiers of Titus did, has already been 
stated. From that time, during sixty-four years, a 
Roman garrison alone inhabited the ruins. At the 
end of these years, the city was rebuilt by the em- 
peror Adrian, under the name of CElia ; a Roman 
colony was planted there ; all Jews were banished 
on pain of death ; every mea.sure was used to de- 
stroy sacred recollections, and desecrate what 
were esteemed as holy places. The city was con- 
secrated to Jupiter Capitolinus ; a temple was 
erected to the pagan god, over the sepulchre of Je- 



332 



LECTURE Vlir, 



sii.s , a statue of Venus was set up on mount Cal- 
vary ; and the figure of a swine, placed in marble 
on the gate that looked towards Bethlehem. Je- 
rusalem continued in possession of the Roman em- 
perors till suhdued in the year 637 A. D. by the 
Saracens. The king of Persia had, in the mean- 
while, besieged and plundered it, but his dominion 
was too short-lived to claim an exception from 
this statement.* In the hands of Mohammedans, 
sometimes of Arabian, sometimes of Turkish, and 
sometimes of Egyptian origin, it continued to be 
literally trampled down and desecrated, during a 
period of more than four hundred years ; when ha- 
ving been taken by the crusaders, its government 
was assumed by one of their leaders, and Chris- 
tians alone were allowed to dwell therein. Only 
about eighty-eight years elapsed, however, before 
the crescent of Mohammed was again planted upon 
the hill of Zion ; where to this day, it has remained, 
with a single trifling exception, undisturbed either 
by Jew or Christian. During the seven centuries 
of this uninterrupted dominion of Mahomniedan- 
ism, Jerusalem has bceji caj)tured and recaptured, 
again and again by the various contendijig families 
and factions of the followers of the Arabian pro- 
phet. The desolations of war ; the marches of con- 
tending hosts, liave indeed " trodden down^^ her me- 
lancholy hills. In the sixteenth century, when Se- 
lim, the ninth emperor of the Turks, visited the city, 

* Gibbon's Decline ami Fall, vol vi )> '2iM\ <•, xlvi. 



LECTURE VIII. 333 

it lay, just as it had been seen by the famous Ta- 
merlaue more than one hundred years before, " mi- 
serably deformed and ruined," inhabited only by a 
few Christians, who paid a large tribute to the 
sultan of Egypt for the possession of the holy se- 
pulchre."* Its condition still, is thus stated by a 
recent traveller : " At every step, coming out of the 
city, the heart is reminded of that prophecy, ac- 
complished to the letter : ' Jerusalem shall he trod- 
den down of the Gentiles.^ All the streets are 
wretchedness ; and the houses of the Jews more 
especially (the people who once held a sceptre on 
this mountain of holiness) are as dunghills." " No 
expression could have been invented more descrip- 
tive of the visible state of Jerusalem, than this 
single phrase, ' trodden doivn.^ "t " Not a creature 
is to be seen in the streets," says another travel- 
ler, " not a creature at the gates, except, now and 
then, a peasant gliding through the gloom, con- 
cealing under his garments the fruits of his labour, 
lest he should be robbed of his hard earnings by 
the rapacious soldier. The only noise heard from 
time to time, in the city, is the galloping of the 
steed of the desert."J " The Jerusalem of sacred 
history is, in fact, no more. Not a vestige remains 
of the capital of David and Solomon ; not a monu- 
ment of Jewish times is standing. The very course 

* Newton on the Prophecy, ii. 319—334. 

I Jowctt's Researches, p. 200. \, Chateaubriand. 



334 LECTURE VIII, 

of the walls is changed, and the boundaries of the 
ancient city are become doubtful."* 

Thus, during a period of seventeen hundred and 
sixty years, have the captivities, and dispersions, 
and oppressions of the Jewish people, together with 
the desolate condition of their city and temple, 
most signally attested the prophetic character of 
our Lord. And shall we not hence be confident 
that what remains of his prediction will be accom- 
plished ? Will not the times of the Gentiles he ful- 
filled ? Will not Jerusalem continue, until then, to 
be trodden doion of the Gentiles ? And then, will 
it not cease to be subject to them ? And does not 
the expression of the prophecy imply that it will 
be again rebuilt and possessed by the Jews in the 
day when " all Israel shall be saved 7" " For 
what reason can we believe that, though they are 
dispersed among all nations, yet by a constant mi- 
racle, they are kept distinct from all, but for the 
further manifestation of God's purposes towards 
them? The prophecies have been accomplished 
to the greatest exactness in the destruction of their 
city, and its continuing still subject to strangers; 
in the dispersion of their people, and their living 
still separate from all people ; and why should not 
the remaining parts of the same pro])hecies be as 
fully accomplished in their restoration, at the pro- 
per season, irhcn the times of the Gentiles sliall be 
fulfilled r't 

^ M.idcni Tnivclln-, l';il.-siiiir, 7r> i Newton, ii 33r, 



LECTURE VIII, 335 

We have now exhibited the exact fulfilment of 
all the particulars of this remarkable prophecy, 
with one exception. The Lord specified the time 
of those great events which he so minutely fore- 
told. " This generation shall not pass away till all 
these things be fulfilled.''^ Forty years had not 
elapsed from the date of this prediction, before all 
things referred to in it had taken place. 

And now let me add but a few words in conclu- 
sion. 

No charge can be brought against the prophecy 
which we have been exhibiting, on the score of ob- 
scurity or ambiguousness of expression. It is ex- 
pressed in the plainest terms, and admits of but 
one interpretation. Nothing can be said in detrac- 
tion from its claim to inspiration, on the ground of 
its being general in its expression. It is singularly 
particular, as well as comprehensive. Nothing can 
be said in denial of the complete correspondence 
between these various predictions and the history of 
the times and places to which they refer. We 
have drawn the evidence from sources which can- 
not be suspected of any partiality to the prophetic 
character of Jesus. The History of the Wars of 
the Jews by Joseph us, the Jewish priest ; the An- 
nals by Tacitus, a Roman consul ; and the History 
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by 
Gibbon, the English sceptic, are all the vouchers 
we require. What, then, is the alternative to 
which the student of prophecy is reduced? He 
must either acknowledge that Jesus was possessed 



336 LECTURE VIII. 

of the spirit of genuine prophecy ; or that he was 
so sagacious as to be able to foretell all these par- 
ticulars, when no one else could see any sign of 
them ; or that the Gospels containing these predic- 
tions were written after the events. The first the 
sceptic is resolved at all hazards to deny ; the se- 
cond he cannot suppose ; the last he must assert, 
or give up his cause. For the same reason, there- 
fore, that the heathen Porphyry, when he could 
not deny the strict correspondence between the 
prophecies of Daniel and the subsequent history of 
Egypt and Syria, rather than confess that Daniel 
was a prophet, contradicted every principle of his- 
torical testimony for the sake of pretending that he 
must have written after the occurrence of what 
he foretold: So have some modern Porphyries 
been driven to assert that the Evangelists who re- 
late this prophecy of Jerusalem must have written 
after the city was destroyed,* I need not say that 
the only reason pretended to in support of this as- 
sertion is the very thing we have been labouring to 
show, the strict agreement between the j^ropJiecy and 
the event. Their argument is neither more nor less 
than the following : If these words were written 
before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus was a 
genuine prophet. But we will not believe him to 
have been a genuine prophet. Therefore these 
words were not written before the destruction of 
Jerusalem. A conclusion as shameless as it is 

'^ Vuliaiiu. — WuibOii'tj Ap. f(H Bible. l(jy 



LECTURE VIII, 337 

senseless ; as opposite to the faitli of all history as 
to the rules of all sound criticism, and the opinion 
of the learned of all ages. It shows the strength 
of the argument from prophecy, as well as the in- 
fatuated obstinacy with which the human heart 
is capable of resisting whatever would bind it to 
the obedience of Christ. 

But let us not forget that the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, with its signs and tribulations^ is set in 
the scriptures as a type of an unspeakably more 
awful and momentous event — the end of the 
WORLD. A day cometh when " the sun shall be 
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the pow- 
ers of the heavens shall be shaken : And then shall 
appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and 
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and 
they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds 
of heaven with power and great glory. And he 
shall send his angels with a great sound of a trum- 
pet, and they shall gather together his elect from 
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
other."* When that day shall arise on the world, 
knoweth no man. One thing we know, that it will 
find us just as death shall find us. Death, to each 
of us, will be virtually the coming of the Son of 
man. Then our eternal state will be sealed. 
Therefore doth wisdom utter her voice : O ye 
sons of men, prepare to meet your God ! for 
in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man 

* Mat. xxiv. 29, 30^ 31. 
43 



338 LECTURE VIIL 

Cometh, Watch ! walk as children of light. Em- 
brace the promises of the gospel, and live by faith 
in Christ Jesus the Lord! "Blessed is that ser- 
vant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find 
so doing." 

POSTSCRIPT 

The following remarks on the subject of chance, in connection 
with prophecy, though in a measure anticipated in the quotation 
from Dr, Gregory, at the end of the last lecture, are too valuable to 
be omitted, and constitute a most appropriate supplement to all that 
has been said on this most interesting branch of the evidences of 
Christianity. They have been kindly prepared, at the request of 
the author, by a friend and parishioner, who finds no incompatibility 
between a supreme devotion of himself to the faith and service of 
Christ, and an eminent proficiency in mathematical and other 
human sciences. 

" The argument from the fulfilment of prophecy, which appears 
so strong and conclusive in its affirmative.aBpect, is no less so when 
the negative mode of reasoning is adopted. We may waive, for ex- 
ample, the idea of a'divine intelligence operating in the annunciation 
and fulfilment of prophecy, and attempt to account for the facts men- 
tioned in some other way. But upon what other principle can we 
account for them ? The prophetic scheme is evidently too vast and 
multifarious for human agency ; and this excluded, there remains 
only the hypothesis of chance — the negation of all intelligence, hu- 
man and divine. The law of events, under this supposition, is the 
same as that by which probabilities are calculated in some of the 
pursuits and occupations of hfe ; and an argument on this point, 
therefore, resolves itself into a mere application of the theory of 
probabiUties to the subjects of prophecy. If it result from such 
application that the fulfilment was an event to be calculated upon 
with some degree of reasonableness, independently of any intelli- 
gent supervision, then arc we at liberty to adopt the ijliilosophy of 
chance ; but otherwiso we arc bound to rt-joct it. 



I 



LECTURE VIII. 339 

" The laws of chance, applicable to the case, may be briefly 
stated as follows: When circumstances seem to determine an 
event equally, in two different ways, the chances are said to be 
equal ; and the expectation of either result is expressed, with evi- 
dent truth, by the fraction |. But when the determining circum- 
stances are unequally divided, so that any proportion, more or less 
than half of the whole number, operates in favour of a particular 
result, the chance of that result is expressed by the corresponding 
fraction. If a ball, for example, is to be drawn from a bag contain- 
ing equal numbers of white and black, the probability of a white 
one being drawn is expressed numerically by ^ ; but if there be 
only one fifth of the whole number white, the ratio of expectation 
will be ^, and so for any other proportion : and this is the general 
law of simple probability. 

" The probability of a joint occurrence, when two independent 
events are expected, is determined by the product of their simple 
ratios ; for there must evidently be, in this case, a whole range of 
possible results, aa regards one event, corresponding to each possi- 
ble result of the other ; and by a parity of reasoning, the same 
truth is made evident for any number of events jointly considered. 
If balls, for example, are to be drawn concurrently from two or 
more bags, containing different proportions of black and white, the 
probability of the whole result being white will be found in the com- 
pound ratio of all those proportions : thus, if one contains i white, 
another ith, another }th, and another j\ih, there will be one chance 
in 800 that, in drawing one ball from each, the whole four will be 
white ; and this is the general law of compound probability. 

" With these premises let us open the book of prophecy, and se- 
lect an example from among the various remarkable events there 
predicted. We choose one of so extraordinary a character as to 
place it among the most improbable events (humanly speaking) of 
any age or nation ; but to be quite sure that we do not over-esti- 
mate it, we suppose it to have an equal chance of general fulfil- 
ment ; expressed, as we have said, by the fraction A; This does 
not, however, include the particularities of time and place, both of 
which are comprehended in the terms of the prediction. With 



340 LECTURE VIII. 

regard to thne^ wc observe, that as there is no natural circumstance 
to determine the event spoken of to one age or period more than 
another, the probability of exact fulfihnent in this respect must be 
inversely as the whole number of ages in which it might have 
taken place. This, if we allow forty years for the average dura- 
tion of an age, is about sixty ; and the fraction ^V^^) therefore, ex- 
presses the contingency of time in the case supposed. With re- 
gard to place^ the probability of exact fulfilment is evidently deter- 
mined by the relation of the locality named to the whole world. 
This, in the case referred to, is not greater than that of one to 
100,000 ; and the fraction t^oVo oj therefore, is the numerical fac- 
tor for this element of probability. Combining these three ratios, 
we obtain an aggregate of no less than twelve miUions of chances 
against the fulfilment of the assumed event at the time and place de- 
signated ; and this event is the personal appearance of Jesus 
Christ upon earth as the Saviour of the world. 

" Remarkably associated with this appearance in many ancient 
predictions, was the continuance of the Jewish dominion, and 
of the temple at Jerusalem ; the joint contingency of which, ac- 
cording to the principles explained, cannot be rated at less than 
iji^. A multitude of predictions are found, also, in various parts 
of scripture, relative to extraordinary particulars in the life, charac 
ter, and death, of our Saviour, as well as with reference to the po- 
litical and social aspect of the limes in which ho appeared. Many 
of them are so nearly miraculous in their nature, or so minute and 
circumstantial in their details, as almost to preclude the idea of 
chance in any sense. And we are very sure, therefore, that we do 
not assume too much in assigning to twenty of them an average 
equal chance of non-occurrence. Proceeding upon this ground, 
we find the probability of their joint occurrence opposed by a dis- 
parity of more than a million of chances to one ,• and it results from 
the combination of all the ratios thus found, that the advent of our 
Saviour, in all its characteristic circumstances and relations, could 
not have been calculated upon us a matter of fortuitous occurrence, 
with more than one in four thousand millious if millions of chances 



LECTURE VUL 341 

The lerm probability can scarcely be applied with propriety to a 
case so very remote ; but the argument does not stop here. 

" Our Saviour, at a time when all the calculations of htiman 
forethought were diametrically opposed to him, predicted the general 
dissemination of his gospel, and the consummation of prophecy with 
regard to the destruction of Jerusalem, in the short space of a sin- 
gle generation : and so it turned out. By the laws of probability, 
neither event had, at the utmost, more than one chance in ninety of 
occui-ring at that particular time ; and there was, therefore, only 
one in 8,100 of their joint occurrence, 

" The predictions relative to the siege of Jerusalem, the subjuga- 
tion of Judea, and the dispersion and subsequent condition of the 
Jews, present many particulars equally remarkable in character 
and fulfilment. We select twenty-four, which have severally a 
degree of probability not greater than i, and the result is an ag 
gregate of nearly seventeen millions of chances opposed to their 
joint occurrence. 

" The predictions of the Old and New Testament relative to 
the state and condition of the church in various ages, and its in- 
fluence upon the moral and political welfare of mankind, furnish 
another class of particulars which have been singularly verified . 
The individual probability of most of them would be much less 
than i ; but wc concede this, and limit ourselves to twelve points, 
I he aggregate contingency of which is about ^Jg-o^^- 

"Finally, the propliecies of the Old Testament relative to the ■ 
Gentile nations around Judea, and the great empires Nineveh, 
Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, &c., present about fifty particulars worthy 
of notice in this calculation. To avoid, however, all possibility of 
error, we consider only half that number, from which we deduce 
the expectation of their united fulfilment in about the ratio of one 
to thirty-three millions. 

" There remains still a vast number of correlative and circum- 
stantial details, not reducible to any of the foregoing heads, which 
are found scattered through the pages of scripture, and furnish a 
" thick array " of corroborative evidence for the affirmative view of 
the subject ; biu we need not fear to waive the use of them in the 



342 LECTURE VIII , 

present calculation. The composition of the ratios already deter- 
mined gives an aggregate which it requires nearly forty places of 
figures to enumerate, and which the utmost powers of the human 
mind may vainly attempt to appreciate. If we should even assume 
a single grain of sand for the numerator of the fraction, the whole 
globe of the earth, repeated many millions of times, would scarcely 
suffice for its denominator ; and such is the extreme improbability 
of any consistent fulfilment of the scriptural prophecies on the prin- 
ciples of chance. 

" It will not be objected to this calculation that it regards the dif- 
ferent subjects of prophecy as parts of one and the same system ; 
for although they were in fact uttered by different prophets and in 
different ages of the world, they are all united by a common sub- 
ject ; and that with a degree of consistency and harmony scarcely 
less wonderful than the fulfilment itself." 



I 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE IX. 



THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 



There is a peculiarity in the argument for the 
divine authority of Christianity, which we cannot 
but notice in the commencement of this lecture. 
While the several parts unite with the utmost har- 
mony and prodigious strength in the construction 
of one grand system of evidence ; each is a perfect 
argument in itself, and capable of furnishing, had 
we nothing else on which to depend, an ample sup- 
port for the whole fabric of Christianity. We 
speak of the several parts composing that general 
division to which these lectures are restricted — the 
external evidence — such as the miracles ; the prophe- 



344 LECTURE IX. 

cies ; and that on which we are now about to 
enter, the 2^ropagation of Christianity. The two 
former have been discussed. We praise the sub- 
ject, not the lecturer, in saying that we have not 
only established on solid ground the genuineness of 
the miracles of the gospel, and the prophetic attes- 
tation to the divine mission of our Lord ; but that, 
in having done thus, we have twice finished the 
proof of Christianity, as a divine revelation. It was 
complete when we had shown that Jesus and his 
apostles were attended hy the credentials of ge- 
nuine miracles. It was commenced again and com- 
pleted a second time, and by a course of argument 
entirely different, when we had shown that Jesus 
was a prophet, as well as the great subject of pro- 
phecy. We are now to begin anew, hoping to 
prove a third time, and by a course of evidence 
entirely different from either of the preceding, that 
the Gospel of Christ is none other than " the glo- 
rious Gospel of the blessed God." Our argument 
will be drawn from the rapid propagation of the 
gospel, in contrast with the dilliculties it had to 
overcome. 

It was only forty days after the resurrection of 
Christ, that he delivered to his little band of apos- 
tles tlie parting cliajge : " Go into all the loorld, 
and p7Cach the gospel to every creature." " Go^ 
teach (or disciple) all nations, haytizing thcni in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Jiubj Ghost." In other vv^ords , Go^ carry the war 
of ihc truth into the imdst of its enemies ; tiiink 



LECTURE IX. 345 

not your work completed till you have planted the 
cross upon the high places of the heathen, and 
have gathered together my elect " from the four 
winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Such 
was the work entrusted to those few, unlearned, 
despised disciples, who formed almost the whole 
strength of the christian church in the day when 
their beloved Master was received out of their 
sight, and ascended into heaven. Now let us con- 
sider in the first division of this lecture : 

I. The difficulties they had to surviount in exe- 
cuting this command. Be it remarked, 

1st. In the first place, that the idea of projjagat- 
ing a new religion, to the exclusion of every other, 
was at that time a perfect novelty to all mankind, 
with the exception of, perhaps, a few individuals of 
the Jews, specially enlightened in the prophetic de- 
clarations of the Old Testament scriptures. The 
Jewish religion was, indeed, sufficiently exclusive ; 
but in its external organization it was neither de- 
signed nor adapted for extensive promulgation. 
Nothing could have been more perfectly foreign to 
all the reigning opinions, prejudices, and disposi- 
tions of that insulated nation, in the days of the 
apostles, than the thought of attempting to convert 
even a single city of the Gentiles to their unsocial 
system of religion. Their zeal was indeed ex- 
tremely energetic in behalf of whatever involved 
the security and honour of their faith ; but, in re- 
gard to other nations, it was the zeal of jealousy 
to keep them at a great distance, rather than of 
44 



346 LECTURE IX. 

invitation to bring them to a participation in tiieir 
superior privileges. 

The charge of the Saviour to his apostles was, 
if possible, still more novel to the Gentiles than 
the Jews, Heathenism had never been propagated 
from place to place. In its innumerable forms, it 
had grown up out of the depraved dispositions of 
human nature, all ov^er the world ; as thorns and 
thistles, though never sown by the husbandman, 
are found every where on the face of the earth. 
Without a creed, it w^as without principle ; and 
therefore had nothing to contend for but the privi- 
lege of assuming any form, worshipping any idol, 
practising any ritual, and pursuing any absurdity, 
which the craft of the priesthood, or the supersti- 
tions and vices of the people might select. It 
never w^as imagined by any description of Pagans 
that all other forms of religion w^ere not as good, 
for the people observing them, as theirs was for 
them ; or that any dictate of kindness or common 
sense should lead them to attempt the subversion 
of the gods of their neighbours, for the sake of es- 
tablishing their own in their stead. So that nothing 
could have been more perfectly new, surprising, 
offensive to the whole Gentile world, than the duty 
laid upon the first advocates of Christianity, to go 
into all nations, asserting the exclusive claims of 
the gospel, denouncing the validity of all other re- 
ligions, and labouring to bring over every creature 
to the single faith of CJirist. Had cliristianity 
been content to stand, without urging its right to 



LECTURE IX. 347 

Stand alone^ the heathen nations might have al- 
lowed it as much toleration as they were accus- 
tomed to yield to the various systems of idolatry 
among themselves. An altar would, perhaps, have 
been vouchsafed, in many an idol temple, to the 
Christian's God ; and an image, in honour of Christ, 
might have been permitted a place among the di- 
vinities of the Pantheon. But its character being 
rigidly exclusive, and yet its spirit universally be- 
nevolent, the apostles must have seen at once that 
they were charged with a work not only perfectly 
new, but which would necessarily bring them into 
conflict with all the institutions, passions, cus- 
toms, prejudices, and powers of all nations of the 
world.* 

2d, But the difiiculties to be surmounted by the 
apostles were not confined to the novelty of their 
enterprise, and the exclusiveness of their faith. In 
the whole character of the gospel, as a system of 
religious doctrine^ and a rule of lieart and life, there 
was a barrier in the way of its progress, which to 
human wisdom and^power would have rendered 
their cause perfectly desperate. To propagate any 
religion at the expense of every otlier, w^ould have 
been to them, in their own strength, destitute as 

* A religion, under which all men could unite with one another, 
appeared lo the ancients an impossihility. " A man must be very 
weak (said Celsus), to imagine that Greeks and barbarians, in 
Asia, Europe, and Lj'bia, can ever unite under the same system of 
religion." 



348 LECTURE IX. 

they were of all earthly auxiliaries, a hopeless 
task ; hut to propagate the religion of the gospel, 
was unspeakably more difficult. A system of doc- 
trine partaking, in the least degree, of any of its 
characteristic qualities, was a thing entirely un- 
imagined among the Heathen, and scarcely thought 
of, by one in ten thousand of the degenerate poste- 
rity of Abraham. Religion, among the Gentiles, 
was a creature of the state; it consisted exclu- 
sively in the outward circumstance of temples, and 
altars, and images, and priests, and sacrifices, and 
festivals, and lustrations. It multiplied its objects 
of w^orship at the pleasure of the civil authorities ; 
taught no system of doctrine, recognized no system 
of morality, required nothing of the heart, com- 
mitted the life of man to unlimited discretion, and 
allowed any one to stand perfectly well with the 
gods, on the trifling condition of a little show of 
respect for their worship, to whatever extent he 
indulged in the worst passions and lowest propen- 
sities of his nature. Heathen religion, in all its 
forms, was the most perfect contrast to every thing 
spiritual, holy, humbling, self-denying. Nothing 
could have been more foreign to every habit of 
thought, in the mind of a native of Greece or 
Rome, than the scripture doctrine of the nature 
and guilt of sin, of repentance, conversion, faith, 
love, meekness, and purity of heart. Their lan- 
guages had scarcely expressions sufficiently ap- 
proximated to these subjects to admit of their ex- 
planation Avithout the coinage of new words for the 



LECTURE IX. 349 

purpose. And in many respects the whole race of 
the Jews, degenerate as they were in the time of 
the apostles, were as little prepared for a spiritual, 
heart-searching religion, as any people of the Gen- 
tiles. 

Then imagine the incipient effort of the disciples 
of Christ to gain over the nations to the obedience 
of the gospel. What could they say to them by 
way of conciliation, of all their systems of religion 
and habits of living, to which, from time immemo- 
rial, they had been accustomed ? Nothing but 
unqualified, uncompromising reprobation. What 
could they offer as a substitute, and with what re- 
commendations could they propose it 7 The unity 
of God, to the extermination of all idolatry ; the 
fall of man and his entire ruin and condemnation hy 
sin, to the utter subversion of all their proud con- 
ceit of their own merit, and of the dignity of their 
degraded nature ; the necessity of a new heart, in- 
cluding repentance, and holiness, and humility, and 
the diligent pursuit of all godliness of living, to the 
complete breaking up of all their philosophy ; the 
mortification of all their pride, and the direct pro- 
hibition of all those unbridled passions and odious 
vices which then held such universal dominion in 
the world. It was no aid to the work of the apos- 
tles, that, besides the above unw^elcome truths and 
requisitions, the gospel stipulated for a habit of 
secret prayer, a life of faith ; a heart animated with 
patience, gentleness, forgiveness, and benevolence, 
to all mankind ; and, above all, a single reliance 



350 LECTURE IX. 

for peace with God upon the death and interces- 
sion of One who had been crucified as a malefac- 
tor, despised and rejected even by the despised 
nation of the Jews. 

It is easy to perceive from this brief sketch of 
some of the peculiarities of the gospel, in contrast 
with all that was loved, and practised, and gloried 
in by the nations of the earth, that while a new 
religion, willing to make terms with the habits and 
corruptions of men, might, if aided by the fascina- 
tions of eloquence, the enticements of worldly in- 
terest, and the arm of secular power, have gained 
some advancement ; Christianity, with its uncom- 
promising spirit ; its holy requirements, and its 
twelve unlettered and despised apostles for its 
whole eartlily strength, must have perished in its 
infancy, had not the " Mighty Ruler of the uni- 
verse" been its friend. 

3d. From what has been said, it is manifest that 
the enterprise of the apostles must have arrayed 
against it all the iiijluence of every jyricstJiood both 
among Jews and Heathens. In the beginning of 
Christianity the priests of the Jews were not only 
very numerous and degenerate, but exceedingly 
influential in their nation. They were, in reality, 
the nobility of Judea. The power of the magis- 
tracy was, in a great measure, in their hands. The 
people were educated under their charge. They 
held the reins of public opinion, and headed all the 
great public movements of the community. "What 
tremendous resistance they were capal>lc of making 



LECTURE IX. 351 

to the advancement of Christianity ; how bitterly 
they replied to those claims which pronounced the 
dissolution of their priesthood, and the termination 
of their authority ; and with what deadly concert 
they persecuted its blessed Author, thinking they 
had put also his gospel, when they had put his 
person to the cross, I need not remind you. 

We turn to the priests of the Gentiles. The en- 
terprise of the apostles was directly at war with 
their dignities, their influence, and their gains. 
What resistance they were capable of making, is 
obvious from a consideration of the extensive esta- 
blishment, the high oflicial dignity, the wealth, the 
political influence, and the superstitious venera- 
tion, attached, in the first years of Christianity, to 
a heathen priesthood. " The religion of the na- 
tions," says Gibbon, " was not merely a specula- 
tive doctrine, professed in the schools or preached 
in the temples. The innumerable deities and rites 
of polytheism were closely interwoven with every 
circumstance of business or pleasure, of public or 
of private life ; and it seemed impossible to escape 
the observance of them without, at the same time, 
renouncing the commerce of mankind. The im- 
portant transactions of peace and war were pre- 
pared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which 
the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier were 
obliged to participate." The Roman senate was 
always held in a temple or consecrated place. Be- 
fore commencing business, every senator performed 
an act of homage to the gods of the nation. The 



352 LECTURE IX. 

several colleges of the sacerdotal order, in the sin- 
gle city of Rome — the fifteen Pontiffs ; the fifteen 
Augurs ; the fifteen keepers of the Sybilline books ; 
the six Vestals ; the seven Epuli; the Flamens ; the 
confraternities of the Salians and Lupercalians, 
&c., furnish an idea of the strong establishment of 
the priesthood in an empire that embraced the 
known world. The dignity of their sacred cha- 
racter was protected, as well by the laws as the 
manners of the country. " Their robes of purple, 
chariots of state, and sumptuous entertainments, 
attracted the admiration of the people ; and they 
received from the consecrated lands and public re- 
venue an ample stipend, which liberally supported 
the splendour of the priesthood, and all the ex- 
pences of the religious worship of the state." The 
great men of Rome, after their consulships and mi- 
litary triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff or of 
augur. Cicero confesses that the latter was the 
supreme object of his wishes. Pliny was animated 
with a similar ambition. Tacitus, the historian, 
after his prsetorship, was a member of the sacer- 
dotal order. The fifteen priests, composing the 
college of pontiffs, were distinguished as the com- 
panions of their sovereign. And as an evidence of 
what accommodations paganism must haAc had in 
Rome in the days of her glory ; the number of its 
temples and chapels, remaining in the three hun- 
dred and eightieth year after the birth of Christ, 
when, for more than three centuries, Christianity 
had been thinning the ranks of its votaries, and for 



LECTURE IX, 353 

sixty years had been the established religion of the 
empire, was four hundred atid tiventy-four.* In 
connection with all this organization and deep 
rooted power of heathenism ; consider its various 
tribes of subordinate agents and interested allies ; 
the diviners, augurs, and managers of oracles, with 
all the attendants and assistants belonging to the 
temples of a countless variety of idols ; the trades 
whose craft was sustained by the patronage of 
image-worship, such as statuaries, shrine-mongers, 
sacrifice-sellers, incense-merchants; consider the 
great festivals and games by which heathenism 
flattered the dispositions of the people, and enlisted 
all classes and all countries in its support — the 
Circensian and other grand exhibitions among the 
Romans; the Pythian, Nemean, Isthmian, and 
Olympic games, celebrated with great pomp and 
splendour in almost every Grecian city of Europe 
and Asia — the pride of the people, the delight of 
all the lovers of pleasure or of fame, intimately as- 
sociated with, and specially patronised by the re- 
ligion of idols ; and therefore directly attacked by 
all the efforts of Christianity. Then say, what 
must have been the immense force in which the 
several priesthoods of all heathen nations were ca- 
pable of uniting among themselves, and with the 
priests of the Jews, in the common cause of crush- 
ing a religion by whose doctrines none of them 
could be tolerated. That with all their various 

* Gibbon, vol. iv. c. xxviii. 

45 



354 LEUTUUE IX. 

contingents, they did unite, consenting in this one 
object, if in little else, of smothering Christianity in 
her cradle, or of drowning her in the blood of her 
disciples, all history assures us. How she survived 
their efforts ; how the fishermen of Galilee could 
have overcome their whole array without the help 
of God, is a problem which infidelity only shows its 
own weakness by attempting to solve. 

4th. But the authority of the magistrate was 
united with the influence of heathen and Jewish 
priesthoods in zealous hostility to the gospel. In 
all countries, the support of the religion of the 
state was the duty of the magistrate. Toleration, 
among the most civilized heathens, much as it has 
been eulogized by infidels, allowed of no religion 
that would not permit entire communion, on the 
part of its followers, in the worship appointed by 
the state. On this condition it countenanced the 
utmost latitude of belief and practice.* But to 
refuse conformity with the national rites, and wor- 
ship to the national gods, was an offence unpar- 
donable, not only to the gods, but to the civil au- 
thority. This it was that excited so much wonder 
among the Gentiles, and nerved the secular arm 

* " The Athenian notion of toleration is well described by So- 
crates, and much resembles the opinion on that subject that many 
entertain, even in our own times. ' It appears to me (says Socra- 
tes) that the Athenians do not greatly care what sentiments a 
man holds, provided he keeps them io himself; but if he altempls 
to instruct others, then they arc indignant.' " 

Douglas on Errors &c., 212. 



LECTURE IX. 355 

with such deadly offence agamst the disciples of 
Christ. " JTee/j yourselves from idols " was a pre- 
cept that met the pagan Greek and Roman when- 
ever he beheld a Christian. " What can be the 
reason (said a Roman prefect to an Alexandrian 
bishop) why you may not still adore that God of 
yours, supposing him to be a God, in conjunction 
with our gods ?" " We ivorshij^ no other God " was 
the Christian's answer ;* a declaration which, from 
the sword of a heathen magistrate, could have no 
forbearance, and being every where received as a 
characteristic principle of the gospel, called out 
the whole power of the civil governments of the 
Gentiles to unite with their priesthoods in its de- 
struction. 

5th. To these associated powers, were added the 
prejudices and passions of all the people. These, 
among the Gentiles, were powerful, not only in fa- 
vour of their own idolatries, but especially in aver- 
sion to a religion originating among Jews ; still 
more to a religion advocated by Jews who were 
despised and persecuted by their own despised 
countrymen ; and yet a great deal more to a reli- 
gion so spiritual and holy, so utterly at war with 
vice and idolatry, as that of the gospel. 

See, in the Epistle to the Romans, a picture from 
the pencil of a master, of the fierce passions, the 
vicious debasements, which universally charac- 
terised the gentile nations in the days of St. Paul. 

* Euseb. Hist. Eccl. vii. c. xi. 



356 LECTURE IX. 

" Filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wick- 
edness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, 
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boast- 
ers, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
without understanding, covenant-breakers, without 
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who, 
knowing the judgment of God, that they which 
commit such things are worthy of death, not only 
do the same, but have pleasure in them that do 
them."* This description is borne out, to the letter, 
by the testimonies of heathen writers. Paul has 
furnished a picture of the morals of his own na- 
tion corresponding with it in all essential features. 
What, then, could the gospel, with all its holy 
duties and spiritual doctrines, encounter in such a 
world, but a most violent opposition from the 
whole mass of the people 1 

6th. But the icisdom and pride of the heathen j)hi- 
losophei^s were by no means the least formidable 
enemies with which the gospel had to contend. 
Their sects, though numerous and exceedingly va- 
rious, were all agreed in proudly trusting in them- 
selves that they were wise, and despising others. 
Their published opinions ; their private specula- 
tions ; their personal immorality ; made them irre- 
concilable adversaries of Christianity. It went up 
into their schools, and called their wisdom foolish- 
ness, and rebuked their self-conceit. It " came not 

* Rom. i. 29—32. 



LECTURE IX. 357 

with excellency of speech," or " the enticing words 
of man's wisdom," " doting (as they did) about 
questions and strifes of words ;" but knowing no- 
thing among men save Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
fied, it just bade them repent, be converted, become 
as little children, and believe in a crucified Saviour 
for peace with God. This was, indeed, " to the 
Greek foolishness." '' What imll this babbler say?" 
" He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods" 
were the taunting words of certain of the Epicu- 
reans and Stoics when they encountered St. Paul, 
Mockery was the natural expression of their minds 
" when they heard of the resurrection of the dead."* 
The apostles, therefore, in attempting to propagate 
the gospel among the Gentiles, were opposed by 
all the wit, and learning, and sophistry; all the 
pride, and jealousy, and malice, of every sect of 
philosophers. And how formidable was this hos- 
tility, is obvious, from the great credit, superior even 
to that of the priests, among the higher classes of 
society, which those sects had obtained. " Who- 
ever pretended to learning or virtue was their dis- 
ciple; the greatest magistrates, generals, kings, 
ranged themselves under their discipline, were 
trained up in their schools, and professed the opi- 
nions they taught."! 

7th. In connection with these powerful adversa- 
ries, consider the character of the age in which the 
apostles undertook the propagation of Christianity. 

* Acts xvii. 18—32. f Lyttleton's Conversion of St. Paul. 



358 LECTURE IX. 

It was distinguished as one of profound 2)^(^ce 
among the nations, when the minds of men were 
peculiarly capable of deliberately investigating the 
claims of the gospel ; it was the Augustan age, when 
philosophy thronged the cities with her disciples, 
and every description of polite literature was in the 
highest cultivation. Its peculiar feature was di- 
rectly the reverse of credulity. No age of the 
world, before or since, was so extensively charac- 
terised by scejJticism. While the great mass of the 
plebeians were superstitiously given to idolatry, the 
patricians were no less corrupted with opinions 
which went to the denial of all religion. Among 
the various schools which then divided the learned 
of the Roman empire ; those which declared openly 
against the most fundamental truths of religion 
were much the most numerous. Of this descrip- 
tion were the Epicureans'^ and Academics; the 
former maintaining that the soul was mortal^ and 
that, if gods thei'C ivere, they took no care of hu- 
man affairs ; the latter, that to arrive at truth was 
impossible ; that, " lohether the gods existed or not ; 
whether the soul icas mortal or immortal ; virtue jJre- 
ferable to vice^ or vice to virtue;^' could not be ascer- 
tained. These two sects, the one atheist, the 
other too sceptical even to believe in atheism, were 
the most numerous of all others in the age of the 
apostles, and were particularly encouraged by the 

* Cicero complains that of all sects of philosophers, this made 
the most remarkable progress and gained the most adherents. 

De Finibus. 



LECTURE IX. 359 

liberality of the rich and the protection of the 
powerful.* From this prevalence of philosophy 
" falsely so called," the age was distinguished for 
curious and bold inquiry ; the learned every where, 
like those of Athens, sjjending their time in little 
else but cither to tell or to hear some new thing.'] It 
was, also, for the same reason, an age of special 
contempt for whatever claimed to be received as 
supernatural. While every city, through the in- 
fluence of the priests and magistrates, was wholly 
given to idolatry, so far as the multitude and the 
external aspect of all classes were concerned; 
yet, in the inner schools of philosophy and the pri- 
vate opinions of the educated, it was almost en- 
tirely pervaded with scepticism. Add to this, its 
necessary companion, the universal prevalence of 
unprecedented luxury and dissoluteness of living ; 
and you will have a true outline of the character 
of the age in which the apostles, by "the foolish- 
ness of preaching," knowing " nothing among men 
save Jesus Christ and him crucified," were to " de- 
stroy the wisdom of the wise," and convert whole 
nations to Christianity. 

Most evidently, was the age peculiarly and en- 
tirely unpropitious. Nothing, on human calcula- 
tion, could have been more certain of utter rejec- 
tion and contempt, at such a time, than the simpli- 
city, spirituality, and holiness of the gospel ; espe- 

* Mosheim's Hist., part. I. § xxi. | Acts, xvii. 



360 LECTURE IX. 

cially its two cardinal points, humble repentance 
and submissive faith. 

8th. Consider, next, to ichom the iwopagation of 
the gosjoel loas committed. Who were they that 
received the commission, " Go preach the gospel to 
every creature," and " make disciples of all na- 
tions?" Men, adapted to such a migiity work in 
no single qualification, except to show, in their 
weakness, that their success was altogether of 
God ! They were neither philosophers, nor ora- 
tors, nor educated men. They were from a class 
of mankind denominated by the ruling nations, 
barbarians ; they were of that nation among the 
barbarians, whom all the rest of the world parti- 
cularly despised ; they were of that portion of the 
nation, which was least esteemed by its own mem- 
bers. They were poor, without the least worldly 
consideration or influence. They were acquainted 
with no craft but that of publicans and fisher- 
men. They had never learned any language but 
that of Galilee, and yet they were to preach to 
people of all languages. Such were the men 
whose work it was to assault the higli and fenced 
walls of Judaism ; to break the power of heathen- 
ism, though entrenched in the vices of the people ; 
upheld by the craft of their priesthoods ; defended 
by the power of all nations ; and sanctioned by the 
traditions of immemorial ages. Such were the 
men who were to go into the proud schools of phi- 
losophy ; show their wisdom to be foolishness ; 
teach their teachers ; bring out captives to the 



LECTURE IX. 361 

humble faith of the crucified Nazarene ; and bap- 
tize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. 

9th. Consider the circumstances of depression and 
discouragement in which they commenced this 
work. The enemies of their Master had just suc- 
ceeded in putting him to the shame of the cross, 
under accusation of capital guilt. Their taunting 
language to the agonizing victim: " Come down 
from the cross, if thou be the Son of God" shows 
what a death-blow they supposed themselves to 
have given to his cause. All his disciples had for- 
saken him, and fled. The stone upon the mouth of 
his sepulchre was not heavier than the weight upon 
their hearts, when they beheld him dead and bu- 
ried. After a few days, they assembled together 
again in Jerusalem, when an upper room contained 
the whole congregation of those that believed in 
Christ. Their cause was universally supposed to 
have died with its Master. The fact that he had 
not been saved by the power of God from the dis- 
grace of crucifixion, was regarded every where as 
a perfect answer to all his claims. Such was the 
beginning of the propagation of the gospel. These 
were the desperate circumstances in which the un- 
friended, unprotected, ridiculed apostles were to 
set up their banner. What could they do ? 

10th. Consider the mode they adopted. They 
sought no favour from worldly influence ; courted 
no human indulgence ; waited for no earthly ap- 
probation ; paid as little deference to rank, or 
46 



362 LECTURE IX. 

wealth, or human learning, as to poverty and 
meanness. They spake as men having authority ; 
as ambassadors, commissioned from a throne, and 
sustained by a power before which, they had a 
right to demand that priests, and philosophers, and 
kings, should submit. '• Not with enticing words 
of man's wisdom,'' did they seek to advance their 
cause ; but in simple reliance upon " the demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit." Instead of selecting such doc- 
trines as would best conciliate their hearers, and 
concealing the rest ; they fixed their preaching most 
emphatically on what they knew was their special 
subject of derision and mockery both to Jew and 
Greek : glorying in nothing save in the cross of 
Christ. Instead of seeking retired and ignorant 
people as the subject of their efforts ; instead of a 
double doctrine, as the philosophers had — one thing 
for the world, another for their disciples — a part 
for the novice — the whole only for the initiated — 
they kept back nothing, any where ; declaring 
boldly the whole gospel in the most public places 
and before the greatest enemies. " Jesus and the 
resurrection," were preached as freely to Epicu- 
reans and Stoics in Athens, as to publicans and 
sinners in Jerusalem. Instead of accommodating 
their declarations in any degree to the vainglo- 
rious and vicious characters of those whom they 
addressed ; they declared the wrath of God to 
be " revealed from licaven against all ungodliness 
and unrighteousness of men." To every soul that 
would be a Christian, they issued the requirement, 



LECTURE IX. 363 

" depart from iniquity," " crucify the flesh, with its 
affections and lusts," and be willing to be esteemed 
a fool and persecuted to death for Christ's sake. 
Such was the mode selected by these powerless 
Galileans, by which to subdue the fierce opposition 
of the proud, self-righteous Jew^s, and to make 
Christians out of Greeks and Romans, alike de- 
voted to degrading vices, and puffed up with the 
conceit of superior wisdom. 

11th. Now let us see in what manner the at- 
tempt to propagate Christianity was received. It 
was met every where by the most strenuous hosti- 
lity, and the fiercest persecution. From the first 
discourse of the apostles, down to the three hun- 
dred and fifth year of the christian era, persecution 
never entirely ceased, while its more public and 
general onsets followed one another in such close 
succession, that the church had hardly time to bury 
her dead before she was called to prepare more 
candidates, by thousands at a time, for the tortures 
and triumphs of martyrdom. The preaching of the 
apostles began at Jerusalem, and there also perse- 
cution began. Saul hunted Christians with the 
appetite of a bloodhound. Stephen was the first 
victim. Soon the brethren were scattered far and 
wide by the fury of the storm. James was slain 
with the sword ; Peter, imprisoned for execution ; 
Paul, scourged and stoned, and pursued so conti- 
nually that, in every city, bonds and afflictions 
awaited him. Whatever Jewish hate, goaded on 
by a jealous priesthood, could do, was put in requi- 



364 LECTURE IX. 

sition to crush the cause. All the devices that 
Roman governors, seconded by the superstitions 
and passions of the several nations of heathenism, 
could employ, w^ere united in the one business of 
driving back the advancing cause of Christ. His 
disciples were calumniated as atheists; enemies of 
man ; murderers and devourers of their own chil- 
dren ; and as guilty of the most loathsome and hor- 
rible practices.* Instruments of torture were ex- 
hausted. Jews and Gentiles, soldiers, slaves, go- 
vernors, and emperors, racked their ingenuity to 
find out new ways of tempting Christians to un- 
faithfulness, and, when they were steadfast, of 
increasing their agonies without hastening their 
death. Every province, and city, and village, was 
a scene of martyrdom. The great principle of the 
ruling powers was, that this " superstition," as 
they called it, must at all hazards be put doion. 
" In a short time, the punishments of death were so 
common, that, as related by the writers of those 
times, no famine, pestilence, or war, ever consumed 
more men at a time." The edict of Trajan, com- 
manding the presidents to inflict capital punish- 
ment on all who would not renounce Christianity, 
was never abrogated while heathenism reigned in 

* " The Atheists," was the universal name for Christians. To 
the charge of dire hostihty to all rehgion, was added that of com- 
bined rebellion against all law and all mankind. " Irreligiosi in 
CcRsares, hostes Cxsantm, hostcs populi Roinani,^^ was their imi- 
versal character, among tlicir enemies. 



LECTURE IX. 365 

Rome.* What persecution was in the heart of the 
empire, it was also in Africa, Persia, Arabia, Cap- 
padocia, Mesopotamia, Nicomedia, Phrygia, and in 
almost every place where the christian name was 
known. " Those who suffered for the cause of 
Christ, men, women, youths of both sexes, were so 
numerous as to be estimated only in the mass," 
" In torments they stood stronger than their tor- 
mentors ; their bruised and mangled limbs proving 
too hard for the instruments with which their flesh 
was racked and pulled from them; the blows, 
however often repeated, could not conquer their 
impregnable faith ; even though they not only 
sliced and tore off the flesh, but raked into their 
very bowels." Such is the description given by 
one of those who thus endured to the end.t The 
strong language in the Epistle to the Hebrews is 
eminently applicable. Some " were tortured, not 
accepting deliverance ; others had trial of cruel 
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds 
and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the 
sword : they wandered about in sheep-skins, and 
goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented : 
they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and 
in dens and caves of the earth. "| 

Christians were often the victims of popular fury, 
as well as of public edicts and imperial authority. 
Every odious slander was propagated against them 

* Lardner, iv. 300. f Cyprian. J Heb. xi. 35—38. 



366 LECTURE IX, 

for the purpose of instigating the rage of the po- 
pulace. The evidence of abject slaves or of per- 
sons forced by torture to testify as an incensed 
community desired, was used to justify the most 
dreadful explosions of vulgar hate. Did a drought 
occur '? It was a proverbial explanation, that " if 
God refused rain, the Christians were in fault." 
Did the Nile refuse its annual irrigation, or the Ti- 
ber overflow its banks? Did earthquake, or fa- 
mine, or any other public calamity, excite the po- 
pular mind 1 A ready cause was in every mouth ; 
the anger of the gods on account of the increase of 
Christianity ! A ready sacrifice to propitiate the of- 
fended deities was immediately resorted to; the 
slaughter of the Christians ! How the better in- 
formed of society endeavoured to stimulate the 
mob to these hecatombs of innocent victims, may 
be judged from the fact, that " Porphyry, a man 
who wished to be accounted a philosopher, found 
a cause for the inveteracy of an infectious and de- 
solating sickness in this, that Esculapius could not 
exert any effectual influence on the earth in conse- 
quence of the prevalence of Christianity."* 

Such, then, were the obstacles which opposed 
the propagation of the gospel. Who, in their an- 
ticipation, must not have said : " If this cause be 
of man, it must come to naught V Either it must 
die a natural death in the obscurity of its birth, or 
be torn to pieces at the first onset of its foes, or else 

* Neanders Ch. Hist. 



LECTURE IX. 367 

it must be of God, — protected and advanced by 
His power. 

Before proceeding to speak of the success of the 
apostles, we may deduce, from the premises we 
have established, a conclusive proof of the power 
by which they acted. 

It is certain that they understood the difficulties, 
and anticijmted the dangers, of their loork. As men 
of ordinary understanding, they must have fore- 
seen, while, by the predictions of Christ, they were 
distinctly apprized of, the obstacles and perils they 
would encounter. Nevertheless, with a perfect 
knowledge of their own weakness, they undertook 
to propagate the gospel among all nations. Why 1 
What was there in reproach and beggary, in racks 
and prisons, in wild beasts and flames, so inviting ? 
Must they not have been sincere in their profes- 
sions ? Could any thing short of a thorough be- 
lief that Jesus was risen, and had promised to be 
with them in all their labours, have induced them 
to undertake such an enterprise % It is impossible, 
without ridiculous absurdity, to question their en- 
tire persuasion of this. But is this a proof that 
Jesus icas risen, and that, in divine power, he was 
with them ? We do not pretend that, in general, 
the fact of the advocates of a doctrine being con- 
vinced, is valid evidence, of its truth. But in the 
case of the apostles it should be thus regarded, in- 
asmuch as theij could not have been deceived,. Whe- 
ther Jesus wrought genuine miracles or not ; whe- 
ther he had appeared to them " at sundry times and 



368 LECTURE IX. 

in divers manners" after his burial; whether he 
had eaten with them, conversed with them, jour- 
neyed with them, during the space of forty days 
subsequent to his death ; whether they heard and 
saw him, at the end of those days, solemnly give 
them their charge to propagate the gospel, and the 
promise of his presence and power wherever they 
should go ; they must have known. Consequently, 
when, with such undeniable knowledge and un- 
questionable sincerity, they went into all the world 
preaching Jesus and the resurrection, neither de- 
ceived nor wishing to deceive, the evidence was 
perfect that they laboured in the service of truth ; 
that their faith stood not " in the loisdom of men, 
but in the power of GodJ^ 

IT. Let us now consider the success of the apos- 
tles IN EXECUTING THEIR MaSTER's CHARGE. On 

the fiftieth day after his death they commenced. 
Beginning in Jerusalem, the very furnace of perse- 
cution, they first set up their banner in the midst 
of those wiio had been first in the crucifixion of 
Jesus, and were all elate with the triumph of that 
tragedy. No assemblage could have been more 
possessed of dispositions perfectly at war with 
their message, than that to which they made their 
first address. And wiiat was the tenor of the 
address 1 " Jesus of Nazareth (said Peter), being 
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknow- 
ledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands 
have crucified and slain ; whom God hath raised 
up. Therefore let all the house of Israel know 



LECTURE IX. 369 

assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, 
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." One 
would have supposed that the same hands that had 
rioted in the blood of his Master, would now have 
wreaked their enmity in that of this daring and, to 
all human view, most impolitic apostle. But what 
ensued? Three thousand souls were that day 
added to the infant church.* In a few days the 
number was increased to Jive thousand;'] and in 
the space of about a year and a half, though the 
gospel was preached only in Jerusalem and its vi- 
cinity, " multitudes, both of men and women," and 
" a great comj^any of the priests, loere obedient to 
the faith "X Now, the converts being driven, by a 
fierce persecution, from Jerusalem, "went every 
where preaching the word ;" and in less than three 
years, churches were gathered " throughout all Ju- 
dea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were multiplied."§ 
About two years after this, or seven from the be- 
ginning of the work, the gospel was first preached 
to the Gentiles ; and such was the success, that be- 
fore thirty years had elapsed from the death of 
Christ, his church had spread throughout Judea, 
Galilee, and Samaria ; through almost all the nu- 
merous districts of the lesser Asia; through 
Greece and the islands of the ^gean sea, the sea- 
coast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome. 
The number of converts in the several cities, re- 

* Acts ii. 41. I Acts iv. 4. J Acts v. 14. vi. 7. 

§ Acts viii, 4, — ix, 13, 

47 



370 LECTURE IX. 

spectively, is described by the expressions, " a great 
number ^^^ " great multitudes ^^^ " much ^jeopley What 
an extensive impression had been made, is obvious 
from the outcry of the opposers at Thessalonica, 
" that they, ioIlo had turned the world upside doion, 
were come hither also." Demetrius, an enemy, 
complained of Paul that " not only at Ephesus, 
but also throughout all Asia, he had jJet^suaded and 
turned aivay much j^^eopleJ^* In the meanvs^hile, Je- 
rusalem, the chief seat of Jewish rancour, conti- 
tinued the metropolis of the gospel, having in it 
many tens of thousands of believers.'] These ac- 
counts are taken from the book of the Acts of the 
Apostles ; but as this book is almost confined to the 
labours of Paul and his immediate companions, 
saying very little of the other apostles, it is very 
certain that the view we have given of the propa- 
gation of the gospel, during the first thirty years, 
is very incomplete. In the thirtieth year after the 
beginning of the work, the terrible persecution un- 
der Nero kindled its fires; then Christians had 
become so numerous at Rome, that by the testi- 
mony of Tacitus, " a great ^nultitude" were seized. 
In forty years more, as we are told in a celebrated 
letter from Pliny, the Roman governor of Pontus 
and Bythinia, Christianity had long subsisted in 
these provinces, though so remote from Judea. 
" Many of all ages, and of every rank, of both sexes 
likewise," were accused to Pliny of being Chris- 

* See Paley's Evidences. | Ads xxi. 20. " Jlotfou (xu^iaSa^." 



LECTURE IX. 371 

lians. What he calls " the contagion of this super- 
stition" (thus forcibly describing the irresistible 
and rapid spread of Christianity), had " seized not 
cities only, but the less towns also, and the open 
country," so that the heathen temples " were al- 
most forsaken," few victims were purchased foi 
sacrifice, and " a long intermission of the sacred 
solemnities had taken place."* Justin Martyr, 
who wrote about thirty years after Pliny, and one 
hundred after the gospel was first preached to the 
Gentiles, thus describes the extent of Christianity 
in his time : " There is not a nation, either Greek 
or barbarian, or of any other name, even of those 
who wander in tribes and live in tents, among 
whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to 
the Father and Creator of the universe by the 
name of the crucified Jesus." Clemens Alexan- 
drinus, a few years after, thus writes : " The phi- 
losophers were confined to Greece, and to their par- 
ticular retainers ; but the doctrine of the Master of 
Christianity did not remain in Judea, but is spread 
throughout the whole world, in every nation, and 
village, and city, converting both whole houses 
and separate individuals, having already brought 
over to the truth not a few of the philosophers 
themselves. If the Greek philosophy be prohi- 
bited, it immediately vanishes ; whereas, from the 
first preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, 
governors and presidents, with their whole train 

* Lardner, iv. 13 — 15. 



372 LECTURE IX. 

and with the populace on their side, have endea- 
voured, with their whole might, to exterminate it, 
yet doth it flourish more and more." 

There is no reason for diminishing the wonder 
which this rapid success of the gospel so necessarily 
excites, by the supposition that all these conver- 
sions, or the greater part of them, were little more 
than a change of profession and name ; the substitu- 
tion of a christian church, for a heathen temple — a 
mere transition from one system of religious cere- 
monial to another. In times of fierce persecution 
the reality of a conversion is tried " as by JlreJ^ 
There was little during the first three hundred 
years of Christianity to encourage a profession of 
its faith, except so far as the heart had become suf- 
ficiently devoted to its holy and self-denying duties, 
to be willing to suffer on their account the loss of 
all things. Mere cold assent and dead formality 
were not likely to put themselves in the way of 
being torn by wild beasts, or buried in the mines. 
The change WTOught in the converts was, for the 
most part and notoriously, a change of heart and of 
life, as well as an entire change of opinion. The 
striking alteration in those who embraced the gos- 
pel, bore a powerful attestation to its divine autho- 
rity. Philosophers complained that men improved 
but little, in goodness, under their instructions ; 
while Paul could say to the Christians of Corinth, 
a city famous for the profligacy of its inhabitants, 
" Such ivere some of you : but ye are loashed, ye are 
sanctified^ ye are justified in the name of the Lord 



LECTURE IX, 373 

Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.''^ " The doc- 
trine of Christ/' says a writer of those times, '' did 
convert the most wicked persons who embraced it 
from all their debaucheries, to the practice of all 
virtues."* So remarkable was the diiference be- 
tween the Christians and those whom they had 
once resembled, that Origen, defending their faith 
against the attacks of Celsus, challenges a compa- 
rison between their moral character and that of 
any other societies in the world. Even the sceptic 
Gibbon unites in this testimony. Speaking of these 
early converts, he says : " As they emerged from 
sin and superstition to the glorious hope of immor- 
tality, they resolved to devote themselves to a life 
not only of virtue, but of penitence. The desire of 
perfection became the ruling passion of their soul." 
" Their serious and sequestered life, averse to the 
gay luxury of the age, inured them to chastity, 
temperance, economy, and all the sober and domes- 
tic virtues. The contempt of the world exercised 
them in the habits of humility, meekness, and pa- 
tience. The more they were persecuted, the more 
closely they adhered to each other. Their mutual 
charity and unsuspecting confidence has been re- 
marked by infidels, and was too often abused by 
perfidious friends. Even their faults, or rather their 
errors, were derived from an excess of virtue."! 
From all these authorities, it is evident that the 
propagation of the gospel was not only of great 

* Origen cont. Celsum. f Gibbon, ii. xv. 138 — 9. 



374 LECTURE IX. 

rapidity, but of great power in transforming the 
hearts and lives of the multitudes who embraced 
it. 

In connection with the moral power and vast 
extent of this work ; it should be considered, that 
among those who were brought to the obedience of 
Christ, were men of all classes, from the most ob- 
scure and ignorant, to the most elevated and learned. 
In the New Testament, we read of an eminent 
counsellor, and of a chief ruler, and of a great com- 
pany of priests, and of two centurions of the Ro- 
man army, and of a proconsul of Cyprus, and of a 
member of the Areopagus at Athens, and even of 
certain of the household of the emperor Nero, as 
having been converted to the faith. Many of the 
converts were highly esteemed for talents and at- 
tainments. Such was Justin Martyr, who, while 
a heathen, was conversant with all the schools of 
philosophy. Such was Pantsenus, who, before his 
conversion, was a philosopher of the school of 
the Stoics, and whose instructions in human learn- 
ing at Alexandria, after he became a Christian, 
were much frequented by students of various cha- 
racters. Such also was Origen, whose reputation 
for learning was so great, that not only Christians, 
but philosophers flocked to his lectures upon ma- 
thematics and philosophy, as well as on the scrip- 
tures. Even the noted Porphyry did not refrain 
from a high eulogium upon the learning of Origen.* 

* Stillingfleet's Orig-. Sac. 273—4. 



LECTURE IX. 375 

It may help to convey some notion of the character 
and quality of many early Christians; of their 
learning and their labours ; to notice the christian 
icriters who flourished in these ages. St. Jerome's 
catalogue contains one hundred and twenty writers 
previous to the year 360 from the death of Christ. 
The catalogue is thus introduced : '^ Let those who 
say the church has had no philosophers, nor elo- 
quent and learned men, observe who and what 
they were who founded, established, and adorned 
it."* Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, 
written about sixty-three years after the gospel 
began to be preached to the Gentiles, expressly 
states that, in the provinces of Pontus and Bythi- 
nia, many of all ranks were accused to him of the 
crime of being Christians.! 

* See Paley, 346. 

f The early advocates of Christianity, in controversy with the 
heathen of Greece and Rome, were accustomed to dwell with 
great stress upon the argument from its propagation. Chrysos- 
torn, of the fourth century, writes : " The apostles of Christ were 
twelve, and they gained the whole world." " Zeno, Plato, So- 
crates, and many others, endeavoured to introduce a new course of 
life, but in vain ; whereas Jesus Christ not only taught, but settled 
a new polity, or way of living, all over the world." " The doc- 
trines and writings of fishermen, who were beaten and driven from 
society, and always lived in the midst of dangers, have been readily 
embraced by learned and unlearned, bondmen and free, kings and 
soldiers, Greeks and barbarians." " Though kings, and tyi-ants, 
and people strove to extinguish the spark of faith, such a flame of 
true religion arose as filled the whole world. If you go to India, 
and Scythia, and the utmost ends of the earth, you will every 



376 LECTURE IX. 

We have now prepared the several facts that 
constitute the materials of our argument. Here is 
an unquestionable historical event. — The rapid and 
extensive spread of Christianity over the whole Ro- 
man empire in less than seventy years from the out- 
set of its preaching. Has any thing else of a like kind 
been known in the world ? Did the learning and popu- 
larity of the ancient philosophers, powerfully aided 
by the favour of the great, and the peculiar charac- 
ter of the age, accomplish any thing in the least 
resembling the success of the apostles ? It is a 
notorious fact that only one of them " ever dared 
to attack the base religion of the nation, and sub- 
stitute better representations of God in its stead, 
although its absurdity was apparent to many of 
them. An attempt of this kind, having cost the 
bold Socrates his life, no others had resolution 
enough to offer such a sacrifice for the general 
good. To excuse their timidity in this respect, and 

where find the doctrine of Christ enlightening the souls of men." 
Augustine, of the same century, speaking of the heathen pliilo- 
sophers, says : " If they were to Hve again, and should see the 
churches crowded, the temples forsaken, and men called from the 
love of temporal, fleetuig things to the hope of eternal life and the 
possession of spiritual and heavenly blessings, and readily em- 
bracing them, provided they were really such as they are said to 
have been, perhaps they would say : ' These are things which we 
did not dare to say to the people ; we rather gave way to their 
custom than endeavoured to draw them over to oui best thoughts 
and apprehensions.' " 

Lardner, ii. 614 and 597. 



LECTURE IX, ' 377 

give it the appearance of profound wisdom, they 
called to their aid the general principle that it is 
imprudent and injurious to let people see the whole 
truth at once ; that it is not only necessary to spare 
sacred prejudices, but, in particular circumstances, 
an act of benevolence to deceive the great mass of 
the people. This was the unanimous opinion of 
almost all the ancient philosophical schools."* No 
further proof is needed that such men were inca- 
pable of effecting any thing approximating to the 
great moral revolution produced in the world by 
the power of the gospel. How different the apos- 
tles ! boldly attacking all vice, superstition, and 
error, at all hazards, in all places, not counting 
their lives deai' unto them, so that they might " testify 
the gospel of the grace of God" But where else 
shall we turn for a parallel to the work we have 
described? What efforts, independently of the 
gospel, were ever successful in the moral regene- 
ration of whole communities of the superstitious 
and licentious ? 

The only event in the annals of time that has 
ever been supposed to bear any resemblance to the 
propagation of Christianity, is the rapid progress of 
Mohammedanism. But a little reflection will show 
you that the single fact of its rapid aiid extensive 
progress is the only point of resemblance ; while, 
in every thing else, there is direct opposition. The 
Koran based its cause upon no profession of mira- 

* Reinhard's Plan, p. 165, 6. 
48 



378 



LECTURE IX. 



cles, and therefore had no detection to fear. The 
gospel rested all upon its repeated miracles, and, 
consequently, unless it had been true, would have 
been certain of detection. Mohammed was of the 
most powerful and lionourable family in Mecca^ 
the chief city of his nation ; and though not rich by 
inheritance, became so by marriage. Jesus w^as of 
a family of poor and unknown inhabitants of an 
obscure village in Judea, and had not where to lay 
his head. Mohammed began his work among the 
rich and great. His first three years were con- 
sumed in attaching to his cause thirteen of the 
chief people of Mecca. Jesus commenced among 
the poor. During his three years of ministry on 
earth, twelve obscure Jews, many of them fisher- 
men, all unlearned and powerless, were his chosen 
disciples. Of the first thirteen apostles of the Ko- 
ran, all ultimately attained to riches and honours, 
to the command of armies, and the government of 
kingdoms. Of the twelve apostles who commenced 
the propagation of the gospel, all attained to the 
utmost poverty, contempt, and ignominy ; and all, 
but one, to a violent death on account of their 
cause. The age, when Mohammed set up his ban- 
ner, was eminently propitious to his enterprise. 
" Nothing can equal the ignorance and darkness 
that reigned in this century."* Science, philoso- 
phy, and theology, had every where declined into 
almost nothingness. The age when the apostles of 

* Mosheim. 



LECTURE IX. 379 

Christ began their work was eminently unpropi- 
tioiis to any cause but that of God, It was the 
Augustaii age. Mohammedanism took its rise in 
an interior town of Arabia, among a barbarous 
people, and its first conquests were among the 
rudest and least enlightened of the most ignorant 
regions of the world, Christianity arose in the 
splendid metropolis of a populous and intelligent 
nation, and achieved her earliest victories in some 
of the most polished and enlightened cities of the 
world. In the town of Mecca, where Mohammed 
opened his mission, there was no established reli- 
gion to contend with. In the city of Jerusalem, 
where Jesus and his apostles began their work of 
love, an established religion was powerfully forti- 
fied within the triple wall of priest, magistrate, and 
people, and defended by all the powers and pas- 
sions of the nation. When the prophet of Arabia 
appeared, his cause was favoured by the feuds that 
prevailed among the Arab tribes around him, and 
by the bitter dissentions and cruel animosities then 
reigning among various sects of degenerate Chris- 
tians ; dissentions that filled the greater part of the 
east with such enormities as rendered the very 
name of Christianity odious to many. When the 
great Prophet of Christianity appeared, the temple 
of Janus was shut, in token of universal peace, so 
that all the schools of philosophy, all sects of su- 
perstition, and all the powers and animosities of 
the nations were free to combine against his gos- 
pel. Mohammed attempted to conciliate the pre- 



380 LECTURE IX. 

vailing religion of the empire, by preaching to the 
ignorant generation of Christians that his religion 
was no other than what had been originally their 
own. The unity of God, the prophetic character 
of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment, and the divine mission of Jesus, he carefully 
and artfully asserted ; pretending to restore the 
purity, instead of attacking the foundations, of 
the religion they had taught. This was politic. 
The apostles, on the other hand, attacked, boldly, 
and unsparingly, the religion of all the world. 
While asserting the essential principles of the reli- 
gion of Moses, they aimed directly at the subversion 
of its, then, degenerate institutions ; and, as to all 
gentile nations, pretended to nothing but uncom- 
promising opposition. This certainly was any thing 
but politic. Mohammed, while he required no- 
thing of his followers that called for self-denial,*' 
expressly sanctioned and promoted their strongest 
passions. Impurity, revenge, ambition, pride, were 
his cardinal and honoured indulgences. Thus he 
enticed human nature. I need not say that the 
requisitions and allurements proclaimed by the 
apostles of Christ were precisely the contrary. But 
thus they repelled human nature. 

Even, with all these advantages in his favour, 
Mohammed, at the end of the first twelve years of 

* The prohibition of ^vino, the fast of Ramadan, and the pilgrim- 
age to Mecca, were no part of Mohammedanism until several years 
after its commencement, when military successes had completely 
established its authority. 



LECTURE IX. 381 

his enterprise, had not extended his cause beyond 
the walls of Mecca, and had gained but few dis- 
ciples within them, because his efforts had been 
confined to ijersuasion. While Christianity, with 
all its disadvantages, in half the time from the be- 
ginning of the ministry of Christ, could number 
more than ten thousand disciples in Jerusalem, and 
churches throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and 
Samaria ; and yet her efforts were also confined to 
licrsuasion. But Mohammed, after twelve years 
experience, discovered that, even with all his in- 
dulgence to passion and pride, some argument 
much more cogent than that of persuasion was ne- 
cessary to convince the nations. This was found at 
the edge of the sword. He sounded the trump of 
war ; promised the spoils of nations, the fairest of 
the captives, and the most luxurious arbour in Pa- 
radise, to those who would join his standard. 
Then, proselytes were multiplied. The roving 
Arabs, converted to the faith for the sake of the 
plunder, flocked to his cause. Death or conversion 
was the only choice of the idolater. " The Koran, 
the tribute, or the sword," was vouchsafed to 
Jews and Christians. Henceforward the demon of 
Mohammedanism was always seated on the hilt of 
the sword, and made its way by force and slaugh- 
ter. How and why, it prevailed both rapidly and 
extensively from this time, I am as little bound 
to explain, as to account for the martial prowess 
of Napoleon, or of the Goths and Vandals. It 
was the success of the warrior, not of the porphet. 



382 LECTURE IXc 

But I may not leave this subject, without turn- 
ing what to some may have seemed ahmost pa- 
rallel to the success of the gospel, into an aux- 
iliary illustration of its superhuman power. It is 
a strong fact, in evidence that God was on the side 
of the apostles, that wiien they had every thing on 
earth to contend with, they succeeded, by mere 
efforts of persuasion, in subduing kingdoms, and 
bringing innumerable multitudes to holiness of life ; 
while Mohammed and his apostles, in the most fa- 
vourable circumstances, were confined, as long as 
they nsed no weapon but that of persuasion, to a 
few followers, and, had they never taken the sword, 
would probably never have been heard of beyond 
the sands of Arabia. 

But should it still be contended that the suc- 
cess of the apostles may be accounted for without 
reference to supernatural aid ; let the question be 
answered why, when the same human means have 
since been employed in so many instances, nothing 
even approximating to the same results has ever en- 
sued. Jews are found at present as numerous as 
ever. Some of the strongest obstacles which op- 
posed the success of the gospel among them, in the 
apostolic age, do not now exist. They have no 
. religious establishment ; no regular priesthood ; no 
power to persecute. Christianity, on the other 
hand, is established. Instead of appearing to the 
Jew as a thing of yesterday, advocated but by a few 
obscure men, as she did of old; she now presents lier- 
self under the sanction of eighteen centuries, illus- 



LECTURE IX. 383 

trtited by the learning of her disciples, professed by 
all civilized nations. It cannot be said that less hu- 
man ellbrt, in the aggregate, has been employed for 
the conversion of the Jews, than was used by the 
twelve apostles. Much more money has been ex- 
pended; much more learning has been devoted; 
much more human power has been exerted ; many 
more individuals have been employed. The same 
gospel has been preached. The same arguments 
have been urged. And why should not correspond- 
ing effects appear ? " There is reason to think that 
there were more Jews converted by the apostles in 
one day, than have since been won over in the 
last thousand years."* The simple explanation is 
and must be, that the great power of God was with 
the apostles for the establishment of the truth, in a 
degree far greater than that in which it is now 
vouchsafed to his ministers in promoting the wide 
extension of the truth. 

From the Jews turn to the heathens. There is 
no reason to believe that the heathenism of the 
present day is any more opposed to the propagation 
of Christianity, than that of the world in the age of 
the apostles. Instead of twelve, there are hun- 
dreds of labourers in this field — men of education, 
talent, indefatigable zeal, undaunted devotion. 
The art of printing has furnished them with facili- 
ties of which the apostles, unless it be conceded 
that they possessed the miraculous gift of tongues, 

* Bryant on the Truth of Christianity. 



384 LECTURE IX. 

were entirely destitute. The scriptures are now 
circulated in full ; while in the days of St. Paul, 
the canon being incomplete, they were circu- 
lated only in parts. In addition to all this, Chris- 
tianity is recommended among many heathen na- 
tions, by the political importance of the countries 
from which its preachers hare gone, and in some, 
by the actual co-operation of christian powers 
ruling in the midst of pagan institutions. With 
these important advantages; what is the success 
of present efforts among the heathen 7 Enough, 
indeed, to reward all the zeal expended in their 
support ; enough to show that still the power of 
God is with the gospel, and that ample encourage- 
ment is given for all the increase of effort which 
Christians can ever bestow on the heathen : but no- 
thing comparable with the success of the apostles. 
Paul was instrumental in converting more hea- 
thens, in thirty years, than all modern missionaries 
in the last live hundred. Explain this fact ! It is 
absurd to attempt it, in view of all the circum- 
stances of the case, except you admit the solution 
given by Paul himself — '• I have planted, and Apol- 
los watered; but God gave the increase:^ With- 
out this grand truth, " God gave the increase;'^ 
Christianity would have perished on the cross of 
its founder. 

I have now set before you a miracle, the evi- 
dence of which no eye can be too blind to see : 
Christianity universally propagated ; and yet propa- 
gated by no earthly influence but that of the apos- 



LECTURE IX. 385 

ties. This is the miracle. It is as directly con- 
trary to the laws of nature and to universal expe- 
rience, as if, at the word of man, the desert of Ara- 
bia should bud and blossom like a fruitful garden, 
or the sepulchre give up its dead. As long as this 
one fact, the propagation of Christianity, shall re- 
main ; the gospel will be supported by a pillar of 
evidence which infidels can only remove by taking 
away the foundation of all inductive evidence, and 
bringing down the whole temple of human know- 
ledge to their own destruction. 

Now, in conclusion, let us see what an unbe- 
liever must believe in consistency with his profes- 
sion. He must believe that the apostles were 
either such weak-minded men as to imagine that 
their crucified Master had been with them, from 
time to time, during forty days after his burial, had 
conversed with them, and eaten with them, and 
that they had every sensible evidence of his resur- 
rection, while in truth he had not been near them, 
but was still in his sepulchre ; or else that they 
were so wicked and deceitful as to go all over the 
world preaching that he was risen from the dead, 
when they knew it was a gross fabrication. Sup- 
pose the unbeliever to choose the latter of these 
alternatives. Then he believes, not only that those 
men were so singularly attached to this untruth as 
to give themselves up to all manner of disgrace, 
and persecution, and labour, for the sake of making 
all the world believe it, knowing that their own 
destruction could be the onlv consequence; but 
49 



386 LECTURE IX. 

also, what is still more singular, that when they 
plunged, immediately at the outset of their minis- 
try, into an immense multitude of those who, hav- 
ing lately crucified the Saviour, were full of en- 
mity to his disciples; they succeeded, without 
learning, eloquence, power, or a single conceivable 
motive, in making three thousand of them believe 
that he, whom they had seen on the cross, was in- 
deed alive again ; and believe it so fully, as to re- 
nounce every thing, and be willing to suffer any 
thing, for the sake of it, and this on the very spot 
where the guards that had kept the sepulchre were 
at hand to tell what was become of the body of Je- 
sus. He must believe, moreover, that although in 
attempting to propagate a new religion to the ex- 
clusion of every other, they were undertaking what 
was entirely new, and opposed to the views of all 
nations ; although the doctrines they preached 
were resisted by all the influence of the several 
priesthoods ; all the power of the several govern- 
ments; all the passions, habits, and prejudices of 
the people ; and all the wit and pride of the philo- 
sophers of all nations ; although the age was such 
as insured to their fabrications the most intelligent 
examination, with the strongest possible disposi- 
tion to detect them ; although, in themselves, these 
infatuated men were directly the reverse of what 
such resistance demanded, and, when they com- 
menced, were surrounded by circumstances of the 
most depressing kind, and by opposers specially 
exulting in the confidence of their destruction ; al- 



LECTURE IX, 



387 



though the mode they adopted was of all others 
most calculated to expose their own weakness and 
dishonesty, and to embitter the enmity and in- 
crease the contempt of their opposers, so that they 
encountered every where the most tremendous per- 
secutions, till torture and death were almost syno- 
nymous with the name of Christian; although 
they had nothing to propose, to Jew or Gentile, as 
a matter of faith, but what the wisdom of the 
world ridiculed, and the vice of the world hated, 
and all men were united in despising ; although 
they had nothing earthly with which to tempt any 
one to receive their fabrication, except the neces- 
sity of an entire change in all his habits and dispo- 
sitions, and an assurance that tribulations and per- 
secutions must be his portion : Yet when philoso- 
phers, with all their learning, and rank, and sub- 
tlety, and veneration, could produce no effect on 
the public mind, these obscure Galileans obtained 
such influence, throughout the whole extent of the 
Roman empire, and especially in the most enlight- 
ened cities, that, in thirty years, what they them- 
selves (by the supposition) did not believe, they 
made hundreds of thousands of all classes, philo- 
sophers, senators, governors, priests, soldiers, as 
well as plebeians, believe, and maintain unto death ; 
yea, they planted this doctrine of their own inven- 
tion so deeply that all the persecutions of three 
hundred years could not root it up ; they esta- 
blished the gospel so permanently that in three 
hundred years it was the established religion of an 



388 LECTURE IX, 

empire co-extensive with the known world, and 
continues still the religion of all civilized nations. 
This, says the unbeliever, they did simply by their 
own wit and industry ; and yet, he well knows that, 
preachers of the gospel, with incomparably more 
learning, with equal industry, in far greater num- 
bers, and in circumstances immeasurably more pro- 
pitious, have attempted to do something of the 
same kind among heathen nations, and could never 
even approximate to their success. Still the apos- 
tles had no help but that of their own ingenuity 
and diligence ! Such is the belief of the unbeliever. 
To escape acknowledging that the apostles were 
aided by miraculous assistance, he makes them to 
have possessed in themselves miraculous ability. 
To get rid of one miracle in the work, he has to 
make twelve miracles out of the twelve agents of the 
work. The Christian takes a far different course. 
" Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the 
increased The iveapons of their warfare icere not 
carnal^ hut mighty through God, to the pulling 
down of strong holds. To which solution, philo- 
sophy or common sense would award the prize of 
rational decision, it is easy to determine. 

The argument from the propagation of Chris- 
tianity is not yet complete. Satisfactory already, 
it is yet to receive an immense accession of strength. 
" The wilderness and the solitary place," the im- 
mense regions of Pagan and Mohammedan desola- 
tion, shall yet be glad for the blessings of the 
gospel, and " the desert rejoice and blossom as the 



LECTURE IX. 389 

rose." Every nation and kindred shall be brought 
" into captivity to the obedience of Christ," for the 
word hath gone forth out of the mouth of the 
Lord : " I will give thee the heathen for thine in- 
heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession." How should every heart respond 
Amen /. and pray : " Thy kingdom come ; thy will 
be done on earth, as it is in heaven !" 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE X. 



THE FRUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 



In our preceding lectures, we have followed the 
currents of three independent arguments, each of 
which was found suflGicient to conduct us to a com- 
plete proof of the divine authority of the gospel of 
Christ. That, to which we now proceed, is espe- 
cially capable of being " known and read of all 
men," and deserves to be ranked in the highest 
class of the evidences of Christianity. Our blessed 
Lord, speaking of false pretenders to divine reve- 
lation, delivered the following rule, by which they 
might be distinguished : " Ye shall know them hy 
their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns^ or 



392 LECTURE X. 

figs of thistles 7 Even so every good tree hringeth 
forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree hringeth forth 
evil fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know 
them.^^ This is a test universally approved of, and 
necessarily employed. Its influence on our judg- 
ment is unavoidable ; and vrhen properly applied, 
its results are certain. The goodness of a tree 
cannot be doubted, w^hile we know the excellence 
of its fruit. No more reason have we to question 
the holy character and divine origin of religionj 
while its legitimate effects on the lives and hearts 
of its genuine disciples are holy. We may come 
to an erroneous conclusion by judging erroneously 
of the fruit ; by ascribing effects to causes which 
did not produce them ; by charging upon religion 
a train of consequences of which it was only the 
incidental occasion, instead of the natural cause. 
But these are errors in the application, and inde- 
pendent of the correctness of the test. Whenever 
you have ascertained the true results of any sys- 
tem of doctrine, you have found a plain and cer- 
tain expression of its intrinsic character. It is 
good in proportion as the fruit is good. If its fruit 
be godly, it must itself be of God. 

Let infidelity be always tried by this equitable 
rule, so as to receive the full credit of all the evils 
which may easily be found to have grown upon its 
branches ; let it be stripped of all those adventi- 
tious circumstances of a favourable kind for which 
it is indebted to the surrounding influence of Chris- 
tianity ; and few eyes will fail to see that the root 



LECTURE X. 393 

is one of bitterness, and the tree fit only to be cut 
down as a cumberer of the ground. If men would 
judge Christianity also, by the fair application of this 
rule, carefully separating from her genuine produc- 
tions all those of which, however enemies may 
love to lay them to her charge, she is only the inno- 
cent occasion ; it would require but little discern- 
ment to be convinced of her heavenly origin, and 
of the duty of all to spread the knowledge and ac- 
ceptance of her divine revelation. Such will be 
the object of the present lecture. Christianity may 
be known by its fruits. Christians are desirous 
that their faith should be judged by this test, as 
well as by every other that is just and equal. We 
set out, therefore, with this question : What are the 
fruits of Christianity 7 In the examination of this 
subject, we will consider, 

I. The effects op Christianity on society in 

GENERAL. 

II. Its effects on the character and happiness 
OP genuine disciples. 

Reserving the latter of these divisions for ano- 
ther lecture, we devote our attention at present 
exclusively to the former. 

In proceeding to illustrate the beneficial effects of 
Christianity on society in general^ I know of no way 
so direct as to consider in what condition the coun- 
tries now blessed with its influence would have re- 
mained, had they been left to the several forms of 
religion under which they had previously subsisted. 
Let us take a brief survey of the moral state of 
50 



394 LECTURE X. 

the ancient world in the age when the preaching 
of the cross effected its wonderful revolution in the 
whole fabric of society. And that w^e may not be 
accused of unfairness, let us take into view, not the 
more distant and uncivilized provinces, but those 
chief central states, where all the light and moral 
vigour of the heathen world were concentrated. 
Let our survey be confined to the society of Italy 
and Greece, where philosophy held her court, and 
literature and the arts were cultivated with the ut- 
most devotion and success. Unfortunately for the 
interests of truth, the history of Greece and Rome 
has fallen, for the most part, into the hands of 
writers much more concerned with their intel- 
lectual and martial prowess, than their moral at- 
tainments and social virtues; so that while the 
reader is occupied in admiring the acuteness of 
their schoolmen, the taste of their poets, the perfec- 
tion of their arts, and the warlike character of 
their soldiery, he is seldom called to look within 
the enclosures of society, and inquire how they 
lived, what manner of men they were in their fa- 
milies, in their social relations, in their moral prin- 
ciples, and their private habits. 

A certain eminent writer, who lived in the age 
to which we refer, addressing the people of Rome, 
describes the heathen population of the civilized 
world as given up to the vilest, most unnatural, 
and beastly affections ; filled with all unrighteous- 
ness and degrading wickedness ; full of envy, mur- 
der, deceit, malignity ; disobedient to parents ; co- 



LECTURE X. 395 

venant-breakerS; without natural affection, impla- 
cable, unmerciful, not only committing such things 
as were w^orthy of death, but having pleasure in 
them that did them. Such, according to St, Paul, 
were the polished Grecians and the sterner Ro- 
mans.* 

1st. Consider their religion. " Professing them- 
selves to be wise, they became fools, and changed 
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image 
made like to corruptible man, and to birds and 
four-footed beasts, and creeping things."! Dei- 
ties were multiplied till there was a god for every 
thing, and any thing answered for a god. Athens 
was full of statues dedicated to different deities ; 
those of various countries being so crowded toge- 
ther, that it was said to be " easier to find a god 
than a man." There was the god Caius Csesar, 
and the god Augustus, and the god Lucius Csesar, 
and the goddess Julia, the profligate daughter of 
Augustus, to whom the rulers of Athens ascribed 
the title of Providence. The senate of the Areo- 
pagus, and that of the six hundred, erected her 
statue, and enacted her divinity, an altar having 
been consecrated many years before, to " the Un- 
known GodJ^ Rome exceeded Athens in the number 
of her gods, only by having, as the mistress of the 
world, all nations to collect from, and all forms of 
paganism to countenance. '' The deities of a thou- 
sand groves and a thousand streams possessed, in 

* Rom. i. 29—32. f Rom. i. 22, 23. 



396 LECTURE X. 

peace, their local and respective influence; nor 
could the Roman, who deprecated the wrath of the 
Tiber, deride the Egyptian who presented his of- 
fering to the beneficent genius of the Nile. Every 
virtue and even vice acquired its divine representa- 
tive ; every art and profession its patron, whose at- 
tributes, in the most distant ages and countries, 
were uniformly derived from the character of their 
peculiar votaries. It was the custom (of the Ro- 
mans) to tempt the protectors of besieged cities by 
the promise of more distinguished honours than 
they possessed in their native country. Rome 
gradually became the common temple of her sub- 
jects, and the freedom of the city was bestowed on 
all the gods of mankind."* " In this mania for fo- 
reign gods, the nobles and the emperors themselves 
set the most corrupting examples. Germanicus 
and Agrippina devoted themselves especially to 
Egyptian gods. So also Vespasian. Nero served 
all gods with the exception of the Dea Syra. 
Marcus Aurelius caused the priests of all foreign 
gods and nations to be assembled in order to im- 
plore aid for the Roman empire against the incur- 
sions of the Marcomanni. Commodus eaused him- 
self to be initiated into the mysteries of the Egyp- 
tian Isis and the Persian Mithras. Severus wor- 
shipped especially the Egyptian Serapis ; Caracal- 
la chiefly the Egyptian Isis ; and Heliogabalus the 
Syrian deities; though he was desirous of be- 

* Gibbon's Dec. and Fall, i. 32, 35, 36. 



LECTURE X. 397 

coming a priest of the Jewish, Samaritan, and 
Christian religions."* 

The traditions of the principal divinities of the 
ancient heathen are a true guide to the vices of 
their worship. What the gods were said to have 
been in their lives, their worshippers were actually 
in their service. " It is a shame," said one who 
knew them well, " even to speak of those things 
which were done of them in secret." The chief 
oracles of the heathens appointed human sacrifices ; 
so that not only the barbarians, but even the Athe- 
nians, Lacedaemonians, and Romans, were accus- 
tomed to worship idols in the blood of their fellow- 
creatures. What must have been the state of pub- 
lic morals when gods were patrons of vice, and 
their rites encouraged both cruelty and obscene- 
ness, it is easier to imagine than describe. " Eu- 
sebius is compelled to use language when describ- 
ing the height of wickedness and impurity which 
the worship of the heathens attained, such as no 
virtuous man can read without shuddering." The 
gods were entreated, by costly offerings, on splen- 
did altars, to favour the indulgence of unnatural 
lusts ; the perpetration of murders ; the robbery of 
the orphan and the widow. Seneca exclaims : 
" How great is now the madness of men ! They 
lisp the most abominable prayers in the ears of the 
gods. And if a man is found listening, they are 
silent. What a man ought not to hear, they do not 

* Prof. Tholuck on Heathenism. — Biblical Repertory. 



398 LECTURE X. 

blush to rehearse to God."* We^l might St. Paul 
describe them as " given up to uncleanness through 
the lusts of their own hearts J ^'\ 

2d. Consider the sjnrit of cruelty that reigned 
among those people. It was not solely owing to 
the madness and depravity of a Tiberius, a Cali- 
gula, a Nero, or a Caracalla, that a cruel and san- 
guinary spirit, in their day, was so universal. Had 
not the whole mass, the peasant, the soldier, the 
citizen, and the senator, as well as the prince, been 
foully tainted, the monstrous enormities of those 
vicious tyrants could never have been perpetrated. 
Such was the cruelty of Romans to their slaves, 
that it was not unusual to put the aged and use- 
less to perish on an island in the Tiber ; and some 
masters would even drown them, as food for the 
inhabitants of their fish-ponds.J Scenes of blood 
and slaughter were the public diversions of the 
people. Witness the shows of gladiators in the 
crowded amphitheatre, when to celebrate a birth- 

* Epist. 10. t See Potter's Antiquities, ii. 301. 

J " The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves on an isl- 
and of the Tiber, there to starve, seems to have been pretty com- 
mon in Rome ; and whoever recovered after having been so ex- 
posed,jhad his liberty given him by an edict of the emperor Clau- 
dius." " The ergastula, or dungeons, where slaves in chains were 
forced to work, were very common all over Italy." " A chained 
slave for a porter, was usual in Rome, as appears from Ovid and 
other authors." The e\T.dence of slaves " was always extorted by 
the most exquisite torments." — Hume on the Populomness of An- 
cient JVations. 



LECTURE X. 399 

day or gratify a popular whim, crowds of captives 
were set to mutual slaughter, or else to contend 
with the fury of wild beasts. What must have 
been the moral sensibility of those nations, of which 
the most refined females delighted in such revolting 
cruelties, criticising the skill of the ferocious 
swordsman, and exclaiming with enthusiasm at the 
graceful stroke that opened the heart of the van- 
quished, and poured out his lifeblood upon the 
arena !* St. Paul describes the heathen commu- 
nity as full of murder and malignity. Hume, 
speaking of " the most illustrious period of Roman 
history," says that " at that time, the horrid prac- 
tice of poisoning was so common, that during part 
of a season a prsetor punished capitally for this 
crime above three thousand ^persons in a part of 

* " Who," says Hume, " can read the accounts of the amphi- 
theatrical entertamments without horror ? or who is surprised that 
the emperors should treat people in the same way the people 
treated their inferiors % One's humanity is apt to renew the barba- 
rous wish of Caligula, that the people had but one neck. A man 
could almost be pleased, by a single blow to put an end to such a 
race of monsters." — Note to Essay on the Populousness of Ancient 
JYations. 

How Cicero, " the mildest of all pagan philosophers and ora- 
tors" regarded with an inhuman approbation the cruelties above 
named, may be seen from his sayings, as quoted in Jortin's Dis- 
courses concerning the truth of the Christian Religion. He states 
that the supplications of a poor wretch begging his life, on the 
arena, only made the spectators, as a matter of course, the more 
violent against him, and the more set upon his death. See the 
Oration for Milo. 



400 LECTURE X. 

Italy, and found informations of this nature still 
multiplying upon him! So depraved in private 
life," adds the historian, " were that people whom 
in their history we so much admire."* Mur- 
der was in common practice among all classes. 
" Such," says Gibbon, " was the unhappy condi- 
tion even of Roman emperors, that, whatever might 
be their conduct, their fate was commonly the 
same ; almost every reign is closed by the same 
disgusting repetition of treason and murder." Sui- 
cide was not only extensively practised, but advo- 
cated as a right, and commended as virtuous. Se- 
neca pleaded for it. Cicero was its advocate. Bru- 
tus, and Cassius, with many others, both defended 
and practised it. Cato is praised by Plutarch for 
having been his own murderer. These, in their 
day, were among the lights of the heathen world ! 
What then, must have been the awful deeds of 
darkness among the more ignorant populace ! 

They were " ivithout natural affection.''^ Nothing 
could exhibit, in a more appalling light, their utter 
annihilation of moral principle and natural affec- 
tion, than the fact that " the exposition, that is, the 
murder of new born infants, was an allowed prac- 
tice in almost all the states of Greece and Rome : 
even among the polite and civilized Athenians, the 
abandoning of one's child to hunger or to wild 
beasts was regarded without blame or censure. "t 

* Essay on Politics. 

I Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments. 



LECTURE X. 



401 



" This practice," says Hume, " was very common ; 
and is not spoken of by any author of those times 
with the horror it deserves, or scarcely even with 
disapprobation. Plutarch, the humane, good-na- 
tured Plutarch, mentions it as a merit in Attalus, 
king of Pergamus, that he murdered, or, if you 
will, exposed all his own children in order to leave 
his crown to the son of his brother, Eumenes. It 
was Solon, the most celebrated of the sages of 
Greece, that gave parents permission by law to kill 
their children."* Philosophers supported the cus- 
tom by arguments. Aristotle thought it should be 
encouraged by the magistrates. Plato maintained 
the same inhuman doctrine. It was complained of, 
as a great singularity, that the laws of Thebes for- 
bade the practice. In all the provinces, and CvSpe- 
cially in Italy, the crime was daily perpetrated. 
From one end to the other the Roman empire was 
stained with the blood of murdered infants. Think 
of the state of domestic virtue, when such was a 
prevailing inhumanity of parents ; and the learn- 
ed defended it as wise; the magistrate counte- 
nanced it as useful; and public sentiment re- 
garded it as innocent ! Such was the power of a 
father by the Roman law, that his adult children 
might be sent to the mines, sold into slavery, or 
destroyed at his will ; his daughter could be com- 
pelled, at his discretion, to forsake a husband whom 
he himself had approved, while his wife could be 

* "Hume on the Populousness of Ancient Nations. 
51 



402 



LECTURE X. 



dismissed at pleasure ; and for certain crimes, some 
of them of a very trivial nature, might be put to 
death. The authority of the father was that of a 
despot. The subjection of his family was that of 
slaves. 

3d. But the Greeks and Romans were as noto- 
rious for their departure from the lowest grade of 
decency, as for their savage disruption of all the 
ties of natural affection. Sallust, speaking of the 
Roman youth in the time of Cicero, says : " Luxu- 
ry, avarice, and pride, enslaved them ; they wan- 
toned in rapine and prodigality ; undervalued their 
own, and coveted what belonged to others ; tram- 
pled on modesty, friendship, and continence ; con- 
founded things divine and human, and threw off all 
manner of consideration and restraint." "Men 
and women laid aside all regard to chastity."* 
We cannot name the degrading crimes which in 
Greece were sanctioned by the public laws, and at 
Rome were practised, in the time of Seneca, with- 
out shame. It was considered a singular example 
in Athens, that the most moral philosopher did not 
indulge in them. Even Cicero could speak, with- 
out any sign of disapprobation, of Cotta, an emi- 
nent Roman, as having owned an habitual addic- 
tion to the vileness we are alluding to, and as 
having quoted the authorities of ancient philoso- 
phers in its vindication. There was no species of 
degrading crime which had not its attempted jus- 

* Rose's Translation. 

^.-^ M 



LECTURE X. 403 

tification in the written doctrines, and its shameless 
perpetration in the avowed practices, of the wise 
men, and such as are usually supposed to have 
been the good men, of the most civilized na- 
tions of antiquity. Quinctilian, speaking of the 
jjhilosojjhers of the first century of the Chrijt- 
tian era, says : " The most notorious vices are 
screened under that name ; and tliey do not la- 
bpur to maintain the character of philosophers 
by virtue and study, but conceal the most vicious 
lives under an austere look and singularity of 
dress."* Such, also, is the acknowledgment of 
Plutarch, with regard to the ancient philosophers 
in general. While he owns that they were gene- 
rally noted for a certain infamous vice which we 
cannot name ; he excuses them by the plea that 
they improved their minds at the same time that 
they corrupted their bodies. Lucian and others 
unite in this representation. Neither Seneca, nor 
Xenophon, nor Plato, nor Aristotle, nor even So- 
crates, whose morals have been extolled by infidels, 
as surpassing any thing in the Bible, is excepted 
from the revolting account of these writers. 
Granting that jealousy and calumny, among the 
ancients, included vsome of those illustrious names 
under a charge so degrading; what must have 
been the character of the great mass of the phi- 
losophers, when calumny durst venture so far ? 

Such were the men whom our modern reformers 
would hold up to the public as patterns of virtue. 

* Qninctilian, Inst. Orat. 



404 



LECTURE X. 



" They opposed each other," says Voltaire, " in 
their dogmas ; but in morality they were all agreed." 
" There has been no philosopher, in all antiquity, 
who has not been desirous of making men better." 
To the truth of the first assertion, we have no rea- 
son to object. In a sense directly opposite to that 
in which the writer intended it to be understood, 
they were indeed in morality aM agreed. As to 
their unanimous desire of making men better, we 
can only say that they adopted the most singular 
means of effecting it. A Roman citizen, of the 
Augustan age, described them as those who, being 
past feelings had given timnselves over unto lasci- 
viousness to v^ork all uncleanness with greediness.'^ 

* Among the philosophers of the time of Cicero, the Cynics 
were held in great repute, and were widely spread throughout the 
Roman empire. The wise man of this school " gave up all human 
relations towards mankind ; contemned his country, his kindred, 
and the joys of wedded love, and sought his consolation in a self- 
complacent beastliness. One might see these beastly men half 
naked, moving about every where, with a great cudgel and a bread- 
bag, performing the animal necessities of their nature before the 
eyes of all ; thrusting themselves, with extreme rudeness, among 
the multitudes, and there stepping forward as teachers of wisdom ; 
not in a regular discourse, .but with abrupt and broken language of 
vulgar sport and derision." And yet even the New Platonic phi- 
losophers greatly revered Cynicism, and represented Diogenes, its 
leader, as a godlike man. 

Whoever may desire a more extended accotmt of ancient, 
classic heathenism, in regard to its gross superstition, its dis- 
gusting sensuality, its obscene idols and ceremonies, its human 
sacrifices, its legalized cruelties, the odious vices of those who cour 
formed to it, and its utter impotency for all purposes of moral im- 



LECTURE X. 405 

"We have now exhibited some of the prominent 
features in the moral character of the society of 
Greece and Rome, in their most enlightened ages. 
From what has been stated, we may form a con- 
ception sufficiently accurate of the condition of 
things in all those departments of morality on 
which depends whatever is important to personal, 
domestic, and public happiness. We have been 
speaking of the most cultivated people of the an- 
cient world. Unspeakably darker and more ap- 
palling would have been the picture, had we de- 
scribed the spirit, habits, and pervading crimes of 
any other pagan nations. But we are content that 
a fair representation of the best, should also be re- 
ceived as a good likeness of the worst communities 
of ancient heathenism. 

We ask, what has become of all these deep 
rooted deformities ? Look around upon the coun- 
tries over which the influence of Christianity has 
been exerted ; those especially where the religion 
of Jesus has been enjoyed in the greatest purity, 
and cultivated with the truest devotion. Where 
are the remains of the abominations we have de- 
scribed ? Crime remains indeed ; but only in hid- 
den dens. It shuns the light. Laws do not aiford it 
countenance. Public sentiment drives it into con- 
cealment. What would the feeling of society now 

provement, is referred to an article, already quoted, on the JVature 
and Influence of Heathenism, hy Prof. Tholuck, of Halle, in Nos. 
vi. and vii. of the Biblical Repository, Jlndovcr. 



406 LECTURE X. 

say to a sliow of gladiators ; to the legalized ex- 
posure of infants by the hands of mothers ; to the 
public, deliberate murder of worn out slaves ; to 
the justification of suicide, and theft, and lying, and 
assassination, and the acknowledged practice of 
the most odious sensuality, by those who are 
looked up to as the moral teachers and examples 
of society ? How would idolatry, with all its 
cruelties and obscenities ; its profligate deities ; its 
human sacrifices ; its hidden mysteries of iniquity ; 
and its public ritual of vice, affect the public mind, 
were its temples, and images, and lascivious cere- 
monies now set up in our cities 1 It is not enough 
to say that in countries where all these abomina- 
tions once rioted without restraint and in full sym- 
pathy with the public taste, they have long since 
been driven away with abhorrence. Positive bless- 
ings, in every form and for every class of society, 
have risen up in their place. A measure of virtue 
which would have singled out an ancient philoso- 
pher as a wonderful exception to the rest of the 
world, is absolutely necessary at present to a cha- 
racter of ordinary decency. Benevolence, such as 
was not known in Greece or Rome, and had it ap- 
peared, would not have been comprehended, is now 
a matter of common, daily intercourse between 
man and man. An incalculable improvement has 
been effected in all departments of human affairs, 
from the administration of national government 
down to the most retired relations of the family 
circle. What rulers would have been remarkable 



LECTURE X. 407 

once for not, doing, the people would now expel 
them for attempting. A spirit of equity, modera- 
tion, and respect for the interests and happiness of 
the community, is required in the governments of 
countries under the influence of Christianity, which 
was hardly conceived of by the nations of anti- 
quity, and, if it ever appeared, was a marvellous 
exception to general rule. Laws, regenerated in 
their principles, are enacted in wisdom, and exe- 
cuted with a faithfulness unknown to the heathen. 
Instead of the despotic harshness with which a 
father was once permitted to rule his children and 
his wife, as his tools and slaves ; universal sentiment 
demands it, as necessary even to decency, that he 
shall be kind to them as his own flesh, and as the 
rightful sharers in all his comforts. Women have 
been elevated from the rank of beasts of burden, 
to an equal participation in all the refinements and 
blessings of society. The condition of the depend- 
ant classes of the community has been raised from 
that of contempt, and oppression, and utter igno- 
rance, to a level, in point of natural right, with all ; 
while education shines upon their dwellings, and 
religion seeks their souls, as worthy of all sacri- 
fices which christian benevolence can make for 
their salvation. 

Efl'orts to provide for the sick, the destitute, the 
orphan, the widow, were unknown among the an- 
cients. Rome, Athens, Corinth, contained no hos- 
pitals, no asylums, no public charities, no systems 
of gratuitous education. Such deeds of benevo- 



408 LECTURE X. 

lence were impossible among a people who were 
accustomed to look upon all forms of human suf- 
fering with indifference, and to derive enthusiastic 
amusement from their promotion. In vain are the 
writings of their moralists examined for exhorta- 
tions to any thing like an active concern for the 
poor or the ignorant. An orphan child was no 
object of public compassion in countries where 
orphans were daily and deliberately made, and left 
to perish by cold blooded abandonment on the part 
of their parents. 

But what new sympathies sprung up imme- 
diately where the gospel prevailed ! It was made 
the duty of the whole christian community to pro- 
vide for the stranger, the poor, the sick, the aged, 
the widow, and the orphan. For this one object, 
public contributions, at the time of divine service, 
were established, and private donations were mul- 
tiplied. How much such benevolence was insisted 
on, may be judged from a passage of Tertullian, 
where, speaking of the impediments which a chris- 
tian woman would encounter by marriage with a 
heathen, he says : " What heathen will suffer his 
wife, in visiting the brethren, to go from street to 
street, into strangers', and even into the most mise- 
rable cottages ? Who will suffer them to steal into 
prisons, to kiss the chains of martyrs? If a 
stranger-brother comes, what reception will he 
find in a stranger's house 7 If she has alms to be- 
stow, the safe and the cellar are closed to her." 



LECTURE X, 409 

What the gospel effected, in promoting benevo- 
lence, and trampling down all the obstacles of self- 
ishness and fear, when good was hardly to be done 
but at the cost of life, may be seen from the follow- 
ing representation of Dionysius, bishop of Alexan- 
dria, who had an opportunity of observing the con- 
trast between heathens and Christians, when a ter- 
rible pestilence was raging in that city. " That 
pestilence appeared to the heathen as the most 
dreadful of all things, as that which left them no 
hope ; not so, how^ever, did it seem to us, but only 
a peculiar and practical trial. The greater part of 
our people, in the abundance of their brotherly 
love, did not spare themselves ; and mutually at- 
tending to each other, they would visit the sick 
without fear, and ministering to them for the sake 
of Christ, they would cheerfully give up their life 
with them. Many died, after their care had re- 
stored others from the disease to health. The best 
among our brethren^ some priests and deacons, and 
some who were celebrated among the laity, died in 
this manner, and such a death, the fruit of great 
piety and strong faith, is liardly inferior to martyr- 
dom. Many who took the bodies of their christian 
brethren into their hands and bosoms, closed their 
mouth and eyes, and buried them with every at- 
tention, soon followed them in death. But with 
the heathen, matters stood quite differently ; at the 
first symptom of sickness, they drove a man from 
their society ; they tore themselves away from 
their dearest connections ; they threw the half 
52 



410 LECTURE X. 

dead into the streets, and left the dead unburied ; 
endeavouring by all the means in their power to 
escape contagion, which, notwithstanding all their 
contrivances, it was very difficult for them to ac- 
complish." 

" In the same manner," writes Neander, from 
whose church history the above is taken, " the 
Christians of Carthage let the light of their love 
and christian conduct shine before the heathen in a 
pestilence which visited North Africa a little be- 
fore, in the reign of Callus. The heathen, out of 
cowardice, left the sick and the dying ; the streets 
were full of corpses, which no man dared to bury ; 
and avarice was the only passion which mastered 
the fear of death ; for wicked men endeavoured to 
make a gain out of the misfortunes of their neigh- 
bours : and the heathen accused the Christians of 
being the cause of this calamity, as enemies of the 
gods, instead of being brought by it to the con- 
sciousness of their own guilt and corruption. But 
Cyprian required of his church that they should 
behold, in this desolating pestilence, a trial of their 
dispositions. 'How necessary is it, my dearest 
brethren,' he says to them, ' that this pestilence, 
which appears to bring horror and destruction, 
should prove the consciences of men ! It will de- 
termine whether the healthy will take care of the 
sick, whether relations bear tender love one to an- 
other, and whether masters care for their sick ser- 
vants.' That the Christians should show a 
spirit of mutual love among themselves, was not 



LECTURE X. 411 

sufficient to satisfy a bishop who formed his notions 
after the model of the great Shepherd. He there- 
fore called his church together, and addressed 
them thus : ' If we do good only to our own peo- 
ple, Ave do no more than publicans and heathens. 
But if we are the children of God, who makes his 
sun shine and his rain to descend upon the just 
and the unjust ; who sheds abroad his blessings, 
not on his own alone, but even upon those whose 
thoughts are far from him ; we must show this by 
our actions, endeavouring to become perfect as our 
Father in heaven is perfect, and blessing those who 
curse, alnd doing good to those who persecute us.' 
Encouraged by this paternal admonition, the mem- 
bers of the church addressed themselves to the 
work ; the rich contributing money, and the poor 
their labour ; so that in a short time the streets 
were cleared of the corpses who filled them, and 
the city saved from the dangers of a universal 
pestilence."* 

That the spirit of primitive Christians is still the 
characteristic spirit of Christianity, in regard to all 
works of charity, may easily be seen. Go where 
the gospel has attained the greatest supremacy, 
and behold how every form of human misery is 
met by the self denying diligence, and comforted 
by the munificence, of the benevolent. What con- 
ceivable method of removing distress, of prevent- 
ing vice, and disseminating happiness, has not been 

* Rose's translation of Neander's Ch. Hist. 



412 LECTURE X. 

put in operation 7 The whole Roman empire had 
not one benevolent institution. The single city of 
London counts her three hundred ! And why is so 
little said or thought of them, except that the pub- 
lic mind has become so accustomed to the noblest 
efforts of benevolence, that they are now regarded 
almost as matters of course — the natural conse- 
quence of prevailing principles of brotherly kind- 
ness and charity ? 

It is not my design to exhibit any thing like a full 
length portrait of the contrast between the civili- 
zation of modern, and that of ancient nations. It 
is seen in all the relations of life ; in the whole fa- 
bric of society, from the government of the family, 
to that of the state ; from the tender cares of the 
cradle and the mother to the wide concerns of com- 
munities and rulers. Every thing has felt the 
change. Though not perfect, it is immense. Much 
remains to be done, but mighty improvements have 
been effected. Were the whole work undone; 
should the sun, which now enlightens the moral 
world, be commanded to go back, and suffer the 
classic paganism of Greece and Rome to resume 
its sway ; every joint in the mechanism of society 
would groan with pain ; every corner in the house- 
hold of civilized beings would be filled with dark- 
ness ; the transition from the arts and literature of 
England to those of Hottentots or New Zealanders, 
would not be greater than such a change from the 
moral elevation of the present age, to the highest 
refmements of the purest nations of antiquity. 



LECTURE X. 413 

Such is the fact. It remains to be accounted 
for. What produced this change ? The religion of 
ancient heathens pleads " not guiltij^ to the charge. 
It had no reference to morals. The vilest crimes 
and the highest repute for piety were perfectly 
consistent with each other, among heathens of the 
Augustan age. It was no part of the business of 
their'priests to teach men virtue. No religion but 
that of the Bible ever possessed or aimed at the 
power of reformation. Equally clear are the lite- 
rature, and philosophy, and arts of antiquity from 
the imputation of this mighty revolution. Never 
did they prevail so extensively among the heathen, 
as in the first century of Christianity ; and never 
were they accompanied with such moral degrada- 
tion. Philosophy had as little disposition, as ability 
to reform. Whatever light it may have possessed, 
it monopolized ; holding its truth in unrighteous- 
ness, and studiously conforming its practice to the 
worst abominations. '' Cicero declares that the 
ancient philosophers never reformed either them- 
selves or their disciples ; and that he knew not 
a single instance in which either the teacher or 
the disciple was made virtuous by their princi- 
ples."* 

* D wight on Infidel Philosophy. 

" In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of anti- 
quity asserted the independent dignity of reason ; but they resigned 
their actions to the commands of law and custom. Viewing with 
a smile of pity and indulgence the various errors of the vulgar, they 



414 LECTURE X. 

But it may be supposed thatj without any other 
cause than its own natural fluctuation, the moral 
condition of ancient nations may have taken a 
change, like the tides of the ocean, and begun to 
rise from the mere fact of being reduced to so low 
an ebb. Answer this by the present state of those 
nations that continued under the native influence 
of paganism. In which of ihem was such a thing 
erer known, as a reformation of public morals ? 
Their unvaried history, from the days of Moses to 
the present, settles the matter, that heathenism has 
no power, but of progressive corruption ; and, left 
to itself, can only reduce its votaries into deeper 
and deeper debasement. Then, if the vast im- 
provement in question is neither the consequence 
of the religion, nor the philosophy, nor the arts, nor 
the literature, nor of any natural reaction iu the 
moral state of the ancient heathen ; to what other 
cause must it be assigned ] History has but one 
answer. Reason has but one answer, Christian- 

diligentlj practised the ceremonies of their faihers. devoutly fre- 
quented the temples of the gods ; and, sometimes condescendiag 
to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the sen- 
timents of an Atheist under the sacerdotal robes. It was indiffer- 
ent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to 
assunae : and they approached, with the same inward contempt 
and the same external reverence, the altars of the Lybian, the 
Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter." — Gibbon's History, i. 34. 

A sorry tribute, by a philosopher, to the benovolence and ho- 
nesty of his ancient brethren. Paul would have drawn their pic- 
ture with a darker pencil still. His Master would have named 
them '• hypocrites." " ichifed sepulchres'' 



LECTURE X. 415 

ity alone ; single-handed, persecuted Christianity, 
by the agency of twelve obscure Jews, began the 
wonderful change, and under the favour of God, 
has accomplished its every step of advancement. 
Till such a thing as the religion of Christ appeared 
in the world, a reformation of heathen society was 
never dreamed of Till Christians appeared among 
the Gentiles, none had ever adventured, none were 
ever disposed, to labour for the improvement of 
mankind. Christian writers were the first that 
dared to drag the abominations of classic anti- 
quity to light, and brand them w4th the condemna- 
tion of truth and righteousness. The first chris- 
tian emperor issued the first prohibition of inhu- 
man practices and amusements, which many cen- 
turies had sanctioned. Till the gospel set up its 
churches and gathered its disciples, the gentile 
world had never seen such a spectacle as that of a 
society united by bands of love ; shining in the 
beauty of holiness ; animated with zeal to do good 
at the expense of self-denial and sacrifice. 

How exclusively the happy eflTects of which we 
have been speaking are the fruit of Christianity, is 
evident from the fact that, when you take up a 
map of the world and mark out the boundaries of 
Christendom, you mark also the boundaries of all 
civilization and refinement ; that as you approach 
the regions where the Bible is best known and 
most obeyed, you perceive a rapid increase of all 
the virtues, and charities, and blessings of which 
the society of man is capable ; that the highest 



416 LECTURE X, 

elevation of the human character is where chris-* 
tianity reigns in her purest form, and the blackest 
page in the history of Christendom, the page most 
polluted with vice, and red with cruelty and mur- 
der, is the record of the people who trampled down 
the institutions of the gospel, decreed the living God 
out of existence, and attempted to raise the deities of 
ancient paganism from the dead. That many indi- 
viduals who deny the truth, and profess to be free 
from the influence of Christianity, are decent men 
and far removed from the condition of the heathen 
in point of moral precept, as well as practice, is no 
evidence against our position. The light of Chris- 
tianity is all about them, and they cannot help 
seeing by its aid. They have learned christian 
truth from their childhood, and it cannot be un- 
learned. Do what they may, they cannot think 
or act without its influence. They may boast the 
sufficiency of their own reason, but they can no 
more exercise their reason without the aid of re- 
velation, than they can breathe the air of spring 
without the fragrance of its flowers. " On all 
questions of morality and religion, the streams of 
thought have flowed through channels enriched 
with a celestial ore, whence they have derived the 
tincture to which they are indebted for their rarest 
and most salutary qualities."* What a commu- 
nity of deists would be without Christianity, can 
only be known by remembering what deists were 

* Robert Hall. 



LECTURE X. 417 

before Christianity came into the world, and what 
they became, when in France they supposed they 
had almost banished her from the earth. 

How remarkable are the confessions of infidels to 
the excellent fruit and indispensable influence of 
the gospel ! Bolingbroke acknowledges, " that 
Constantine acted the part of a sound politician in 
protecting Christianity, as it tended to give firm- 
ness and solidity to his empire, softened the fero- 
city of the army, and reformed the licentiousness 
of the provinces, and by infusing a spirit of mode- 
ration and submission to government, tended to 
extinguish those principles of avarice and ambi- 
tion, injustice and violence, by which so many fac- 
tions were formed." " No religion," says the same 
opposer of Christianity, " ever appeared in the 
world whose natural tendency was so much di- 
rected to promote the peace and happiness of man- 
kind. It makes right reason a law in every pos- 
sible definition of the word. And therefore, even 
supposing it to have been purely a human inven- 
tion, it had been the most amiable and the most 
useful invention that was ever imposed on man- 
kind for their good." Thus even Rousseau : " If 
all were perfect Christians, individuals would do 
their duty ; the people would be obedient to the 
laws ; the magistrates incorrupt ; and there would 
be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state." 
Such are the confessions of many other writers of 
the same class. And yet these men would run 
the ploughshare through the foundations of the 
53 



418 LECTURE X. 

church of Christ, so that one stone should not be 
left upon another. So much for the consistency, 
the virtue, and disinterested benevolence of infi- 
delity ; or rather so much for the contradiction 
between its head and its heart, its convictions and 
its vices. 

I know of nothing, in the way of fact, more 
strikingly illustrative of the legitimate fruits of 
Christianity ; more completely in proof that all the 
social and moral blessings which civilized nations 
at present enjoy, are to be ascribed to her influence ; 
and that what she once was, as a tree of life to the 
nations, she is now, and ever will be ; than the his- 
tory of the missions among the heathen, which pro- 
testant Christians are now sustaining. Here we 
have experiments of her power in all climates, over 
all habits and dispositions, and with all classes of 
mind. She has gone in among the ice-bound inha- 
bitants of Greenland, whose intellect was as slow, 
and sleepy, and creeping, as the seals they lived 
on; and whose hearts were as barren and cold as 
their perpetual snows. She has entered among the 
inhabitants of the southern extreme of Africa, the 
Hottentots, the very lowest gradation of human na- 
ture, whose souls were supposed to be as incapable 
of enlightening and enlargement as the instincts of 
the vermin that covered them. She has tried her 
powers among the ferocious tribes of American In- 
dians; upon warriors nourished with blood, and 
breathing a spirit of slaughter which no suflferings 
nor dangers could ever tame. She has lifted up 



LECTURE X. 419 

her voice in the islands of the Pacific, among sa- 
vages uniting with the most inhuman idolatry, the 
most beastly vices and unnatural cruelties; and 
from all this heterogeneous display of iinshapen 
depravity, by the mere influence of her truth and 
love, she has led forth a multitude of disciples for 
the Lord Jesus, in which are found precisely the 
same distinctive features of meekness, humility, love, 
and holiness. Look at the Sandwich, or the Society 
Islands ! Within our own times were they univer- 
sally pagan, having no altars but those of daemons ; 
no law but that of violence ; no morals but those 
of unbridled passion. Theft was the most national 
art. Polygamy ; crimes against nature ; the mur- 
der of prisoners taken in war ; the destruction of 
infants and the sacrificing of human victims, pre- 
vailed throughout their population. What is the 
change ! Where are now their idols ? In the mu- 
seums of our missionary societies, as trophies of 
the victories of the cross ; or cast " to the moles 
and the bats" by those who once adored them. 
The whole plan and mould of society has been re- 
cast. Laws, wisely enacted and well adminis- 
tered, keep the peace and promote improvements. 
Crimes of all kinds are obliged to cease or go into 
concealment. Marriage has given parents new af- 
fection for their children, and their children new 
ties among each other. Benevolence, unknown 
before, has awakened a desire to go about doing 
good. The sabbath is reverenced and widely kept 
for rest and worship. The arts of peace are culti- 



420 LECTURE X. 

vated where formerly the only art desired was that 
of war. The march of civilization is visible in all 
domestic comforts and private affairs ; in agricul- 
ture, commerce, buildings, cleanliness, dress, man- 
ners, and government. Schools are spread through 
the islands, and education is eagerly sought by a 
large proportion of the people of all ages and 
classes. Such are the fruits of Christianity in our 
day. Nothing else could have produced such 
fruits. Just after infidelity had given the world a 
full length portrait, in the French revolution, of 
her power to tear down, and tear in pieces, and 
drown in blood, whatever is lovely and of good re- 
port ; then Christianity set out, on the opposite side 
of the world, to furnish a striking contrast, in the 
missions of the Pacific, of her benign influence to 
exterminate whatever is odious and depraved.* 

* It is well known to the author that travellers and voyagers 
not -unfrequently bring back reports of the effects of missionary 
labours in the regions they have visited, which stagger the minds 
of many sincere friends of foreign missions. The accounts of 
what those honoured and devoted servants of Christ, called mis- 
sionaries, are doing, and of the advances which the gospel is 
making under their influence, may all be true ; much more than 
they relate may be true ; and yet it is very conceivable, yea, natu- 
ral, that such men as our ordinary visiters of foreign lands should 
return from those regions, having neither seen nor heard any thing 
of the matter. Suppose a missionary were accomplishing, with 
his schools and his preaching, among a tribe of Indians in the cen- 
tre of the state of New York, about as much as is reported of the 
American labourers in the island of Ceylon ; how long might an 
intelligent traveller, with no interest in religion, no relish for its in- 



LECTURE X. 421 

Not only has the religion of the gospel produced 
such fruits, but the experiment of 1800 years is 

telligence, no love for the society of its disciples, no knowledge of 
its journals — a man of fashion and gaiety, mingling only with the 
literary and the worldly-minded ; how long might he reside in the 
fashionable circles of the city of New York, and sail up the Hud- 
son, and stop at Saratoga, and visit Niagara, and yet know abso- 
lutely nothing of that diligent missionary and his usefulness 1 Men 
who have lived all their days in a city which abounds in religious 
institutions and christian labours, without having become suffi- 
ciently informed to give a stranger a correct account even of their 
respective characters, much less of their real usefulness, will touch 
at a port in the Sandwich islands, see the port population, go no 
further than the coast, inquire of none but the ungodly, and then 
come home and report that the missionaries have done nothing to 
civilize or convict the people. How should such men know 1 On 
their principles of judging, it might be reported, with equal reason, 
that Christianity has secured no influence, and done no good, in the 
city of New York. An anecdote will illustrate how such authorities 
deserve to be regarded. A gentleman, not long since, returned to 
his native city in England, after having spent some three or four 
years in India. The pious people of his acquaintance (not consi- 
dering the extent of the Indies, and his indifference to the 
cause of Christ) supposed that of course he had seen the mis- 
sionary stations, and knew by his own observation all about the re- 
ported progress of religion in that country. The_y inquired of him 
the state of things in this respect. He assured them that the ac- 
counts they had read of missionary doings and successes in the 
East had no foundation — were mere traps to get contributions. 
He had been in India, and travelled extensively, and had seen no- 
thing of any inroads upon heathenism, nor any changes among the 
people ; had scarcely heard of the existence of missionary stations. 
The people were amazed ! Much harm was doing ; when a clergy- 
man of the place, hearing of the matter, took an opportunity to 
converse with the traveller. Before disclosing his object, he said 



422 LECTURE X. 

perfect proof, that in proportion as it shall ever be 
possessed in native soundness, and have room and 
freedom to spread its roots and extend its branches, 
it will continue to bear such fruit, more and more 
abundantly and perfectly, to the end of time. This 
tree of life was planted to live through all ages, 
and spread its shadow over all nations. The trials 
it stood in its infancy ; the fierce assaults of every 
species of enmity, which in every age of its snbse- 
qnent growth have endeavoured in vain to destroy 
it, are evidences that, as no human power could 
have thus protected it. so no human opposition can 

to him : '•' You are probably familiar with the national school sys- 
tem of instruction in this country. What do you think of it ?" 
" Why no," answered the traveller, " I really am not acquainted 
with it."' " But you doubtless know that there is such a system, 
and hare probably seen its establishments, and heard much of its 
usefulness." " Why no, I have never happened to do so, though I 
have an indistinct idea of the existence of such a system." 
" Well,"' said the clergyman, " I will tell you. The national school 
system has been established for several years in England. Its 
schools are aU over the country ; its pupils are many hundreds of 
thousands ; its influence is universally felt. It maintains more 
than one school in your immediate neighbourhood. Almost all 
your life has been spent in England, a small country, and yet you 
know nothing of these interesting facts. You have been a short 
time in the immense region of India, over whicL a few missionary 
stations are scattered, as drops upon a desert ; and because, in vi- 
siting a few prominent places, you heard or saw nothing of their 
influence upon the millions of heathen, you would persuade us 
that what we have read is all untrue. How much more should 
we believe that the national school system is a fable !" The tra- 
veller was silenced ; the people were satisfied. 



LECTURE X. 423 

hereafter prevent its increase ; that it must grow, 
and spread, and blossom, till time shall be no more. 
I am well aware, and I desire not to conceal, 
that it is very common with infidels to ascribe 
?ya?s, intrigues, bloodshed, and persecutions, to the 
influence of Christianity, and to assert that the 
world has been covered with slaughter by the hand 
of the gospel. The truth is, that whenever any 
evils, such as wars or persecutions, arise, though 
infidels by profession, or mere nominal christians, 
are at the bottom of them ; though originated 
and carried on out of direct enmity to the gos- 
pel; yet, because the christian name is involved 
in the contest, infidels set down the whole to the 
account of a religion, which, nevertheless, their 
chief men confess, has a direct tendency to inake 
every body do his duty,* and '' to promote the peace 
and happiness of mankind.''''^ But on the other 
hand, whenever any good is done in society, such 
as the banishment of the crimes and vices of hea- 
thenism ; the promotion of virtue, peace, good 
laws, good institutions, benevolence, domestic and 
public happiness ; then infidels have great difficulty 
in seeing how these blessings are connected with 
Christianity, even though, by their own acknowledg- 
ment, the life of Jesus " showed at once what excel- 
lent creatures men would be, when under the in- 
flue^ice andptower of that gospel which he preachcd^X 

* Rousseau. | Bolingbroke. 

X Chubb's True Gospel, § viii. 55, 6. 



424 LECTURE X. 

It is freely granted that in countries called chris- 
tian, great evils remain to be cured ; their history- 
abounds with wars, some of which have been on 
account of the christian religion, and have been 
accompanied with great slaughter and lasting en- 
mities. But before these deplorable facts can 
justly be attributed to the influence of the peaceful 
and gentle religion of Jesus, a number of important 
questions, which we shall presently name, must be 
decided. By the confession of one of the most 
noted infidels : " We have in Christ an example of 
one who was just, honest, upright, and sincere, and 
above all, of a most gracious and benevolent tem- 
per and behaviour. One who did no wrong, no 
injury to any man ; in whose mouth was no guile ; 
who went about doing good, not only by his mi- 
nistry, but also in curing all manner of diseases 
among the people. His life showed what excellent 
creatures men would be when under the influence 
and power of that gospel which he preached unto 
them."* But hear on this head the eloquence of 
the profligate Rousseau, venturing for once to 
speak the truth : " I will confess that the majesty 
of the scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the 
purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. 
Peruse the works of our philosophers with all their 
pomp of diction ; how contemptible are they com- 
pared with the scriptures ! Is it possible that a 
book at once so simple and sublime should be 

* Chubb's True Gospel, § viii. 56, 57. 



LECTURE X. 425 

merely the work of man ? Is it possible that the 
sacred personage whose name it records, should be 
himself a mere man"? What sweetness, what 
purity in his manner ! What sublimity in his max- 
ims ! What profound wisdom in his discourses ! 
Where is the man, where the philosopher, who 
could so live and so die without weakness and 
without ostentation ? If the life and death of So- 
crates were those of a sage, the life and death of 
Jesus were those of a God." Such are the confes- 
sions of a man whose vice and vanity constrained 
him to say : " I cannot believe the gospel." No won- 
der, when at the same time he was saying in his 
heart, I will not re7iounce my debaucheries. 

But such confessions abound in the writings of 
infidels, so that "the whole christian argument 
might be maintained on the admissions of one or 
other of the leading infidel writers ; and no contest 
remain, unless, if it could then be called one, with 
the miserable, ignorant ferocity of Paine and his 
associates."* 

On the ground of such acknowledgments, and of 
the acquaintance which any who ever read the 
New Testament must have with its principles 
and tendency, let the following questions be an- 
swered : Is there any tendency in the principles of 
the gospel to the enkindling of strife, hatred, war, 
or bloodshed '? Was the character of its founder ; 
were the characters of the apostles and primitive 

* Wilson's Lectures. 

54 



426 LECTURE X. 

Christians among whom the native inflaence of 
Christianity was most unequivocally exhibited, in 
any manner indicative of such a tendency in its 
principles 1 Is not the whole history of the purest 
ages of the gospel, as well as every page in the New 
Testament, directly in proof of the very opposite 
effect 7 Did not all the evils of war and national 
dissention prevail much more universally before 
the establishment of Christianity, than they have 
done since ? Is not the influence of this religion 
plainly visible in mitigating those horrors of war 
which she has not exterminated 7 And as to those 
which have continued to subsist, are they in direct 
consequence, or in spite of her influence ; the fruit of 
the tree, or the poisonous weeds at its root, which 
oppose its growth ? Are the men who have been 
concerned in promoting these evils, and who are 
called Christians, believed to have been real 
Christians? Do not infidels discriminate suffi- 
ciently between genuine and nominal religion, to 
understand that, in thus acting, they were de- 
parting from the principles of the gospel, and prov- 
ing that they were Christians but in name'? 
" Have not the courts of princes, notwithstanding 
Christianity may have been the professed religion 
of the land, been generally attended by a far 
greater proportion of deists, than of serious Chris- 
tians ; and have not public measures been directed 
by the counsels of the former, much more than by 
those of the latter ? It is well known that great 
numbers among the nobility and gentry of every 



LECTURE X. 427 

nation consider religion as suited only to vulgar 
minds ; and therefore either wholly absent them- 
selves from public worship, or attend but seldom, 
and then only to save appearances towards a na- 
tional establishment. In other words, they are 
unbelievers. This is the description of men by 
which public affairs are commonly managed, and 
to which the good or the evil pertaining to them, 
so far as human agency is concerned, is to be at- 
tributed."* 

It is a favourite manoeuvre with infidels to 
charge Christianity with all the persecutions on 
account of religion, and, at the same time, to speak 
ill high terms of '' the mild tolerance of the ancient 
heathens ;" of " the 'universal toleration of poly- 
theism ;^^ of "the Roman princes beholding with- 
out concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting 
in peace under their gentle sway."t Better infor- 
mation on this subject is greatly needed in the 
community. Heathen toleration was any thing but 
virtuous, and much less universal than its modern 
eulogists would represent. It allowed all nations 
to establish whatever description of religion they 
pleased, provided each would acknowledge that 
all, in their several spheres, were equally good. 
But pagan nations required of every citizen con- 
formity to the national idolatries. This yielded, 
he might believe and be, whatever he pleased. 
This denied, immediately toleration ceased. Take 

* Fuller's Gospel its own Witness, j Gibbon. 



428 LECTURE X. 

a few examples. Stilpo was banished Athens, for 
affirming that the statue of Minerva, in the citadel, 
was no divinity, but only the work of the chisel of 
Phidias, Protagoras received a similar punish- 
ment for this single sentence : " Whether there be 
gods or not, I have nothing to offer." Prodicus 
and his pupil, Socrates, suffered death for opinions 
at variance with the established idolatry of Athens. 
Alcibiades and jEschylus narrowly escaped a like 
end for a similar cause. Plato dissembled his opi- 
nions ; and Aristotle fled his country, under the 
lash of the mild and universal toleration of the Gre- 
cian mythology. Cicero lays it down as a princi- 
ple of legislation entirely conformable to the rights 
of the Roman state, that " no man shall have sepa- 
rate gods for himself; and no man shall worship 
by himself new or foreign gods, unless they have 
been publicly acknowledged by the laws of the 
state."* The speech, in Dion Cassius, which Mae- 
cenas is said to have made to Augustus, may be 
considered a fair index of the prevailing sentiment 
of that polished age. " Honour the gods," says 
Meecenas, " by all means, according to the customs 
of your country, and force others so to honour 
them. But those who are forever introducing 
something foreign in these matters, hate and pu- 
nish, not only for the sake of the gods, but also 
because they who introduce new divinities mislead 
many others into receiving foreign laws also. Suf- 

* De Legibus^ ii. 8. 



LECTURE X. 429 

fer no man either to deny the gods, or to practise 
sorcery." Julius Paulus, the Roman civilian, gives 
the following as a leading feature of Roman law : 
" Those who introduced new religions, or such as 
were unknown in their tendency and nature, by 
which the minds of men might be agitated, were 
degraded if they belonged to the higher ranks, and 
if they were in a lower state, were punished wdth 
death." Under this legislation, many of the go- 
vernors endeavoured to compromise with Chris- 
tians, by allowing them to believe and honour Avhat 
they pleased in their hearts, provided they would 
observe outwardly the religious ceremonies or- 
dained by the state.* 

Examples to the same effect, might be greatly 
multiplied. I have furnished enough to show in 
what sense the heathen princes " beheld, ivitliout 
concern, a thousand forms of religion subsisting in 
peace under their gentle sway f^ and how far Vol- 
taire was accurately informed or honestly disposed, 
when boasting that the ancient Romans " never 
persecuted a single philosopher for his opinions, 
from the time of Romulus till the popes got pos- 
session of their power." 

It is willingly conceded that persecutions on ac- 
count of religion were enormously increased imme- 
diately after the promulgation of Christianity ; in- 
asmuch as nothing had ever before attacked the 
superstitions and vices of the heathen with her 

* See Neander's Church Flistorj. 



430 LECTURE X. 

undaunted, uncompromising spirit. But did cliris= 
tianity persecute: or was she the object of perse- 
cution ? Was Jesus the persecutor of Pilate ? Did 
Paul persecute the worshippers of the Ephesian 
Diana, or the heathen of Iconium, or those who 
stoned him at Lystra 7 By whose intolerance was 
it, that, for three hundred years, the christian 
church was continually overflowed with the blood 
of her martyrs 1 Did the multitudes who perished 
for Christ's sake, under the paw of the lion, and 
the sword of the gladiator, and the screws of the 
rack — did they persecute the heathen priests, and 
people, and magistrates — Nero, and Trajan, and 
Diocletian — with their proconsuls, and governors, 
and executioners 7 I grant that in the lapse of 
centuries the guilt of persecution did attach to the 
church. Christian powers, and ministers, and peo- 
ple have, in various ages, been justly liable to this 
lamentable charge. But who does not know that 
the church, before ever she began to persecute, 
had manifestly degenerated from the purity of the 
gospel, and become deeply poisoned with the spirit 
of the world, having her chief places occupied by 
such men as infidels know were not influenced 
by vital Christianity 7* Who is so blind as not to 

* The emperor Julian acknowledged that persecutions were 
the inventions of the later Christians ; that neither Jesus, nor Paul, 
nor any other of the first preachers of the gospel, had taught men 
to kill others for being of a different religion, or for differing about 
lesser matters among themselves.— Z/Crdner, iv, 337. 



LECTURE X, 431 

.see that wherever such evils have existed among 
any people called Christians, they have been be- 
cause those people had so little of the spirit of the 
gospel, and not because they had any of it 1 They 
have been directly the reverse of the religion pro- 
fessed by such persons ; the fruits of their own native 
dispositions, combined with the character of the ages 
they lived in, assimilating them thus far to infidels, 
who have always been persecutors in proportion to 
their power. True Christianity desires and needs no 
effort of secular power to advance her cause. She 
asks but one favour : liberty to preach the word. 
Her whole dependance is on " the demonstration 
of the spirit." " God giveth the increase.^'' 

We have now applied to Christianity the test by 
which she claims to be proved; one universally 
employed as safe, and approved as just; the tree is 
knoimi by its fruits. The religion of the gospel 
we have seen coming into the world at a period 
when every moral evil abounded. The grossest 
idolatry, attended with the most inhuman and in- 
decent rites, prevailed among the most enlightened 
nations. Spectacles of slaughter and suffering 
constituted the public amusements. Parents with- 
out natural affection, children in slavery to their 
parents, and at the mercy of their displeasure, the 
female sex degraded to a rank of servile inferiority, 
murders and cruelties characterized the age. Vices 
of the most beastly kind were practised and 
avowed in the highest and most influential classes 
of society. What would now shame out of the 



432 LECTURE X. 

world the most degraded of mankind, could then 
be acknowledged, even by a public teacher of mo- 
rals, without reproach. Public opinion, the ther- 
mometer of public virtue, had no condemnation for 
habits not only against all the securities of domes- 
tic happiness and social welfare, but against every 
dictate of nature, and requiring for their permis- 
sion the lowest debasement of the moral sense of 
the community. Among all the gentile nations, 
none possessed the benevolence to attempt, nothing 
had power to effect, the reformation of a world 
thus sunk in wretchedness, and paralysed with 
vice. It was the era, indeed, of the world's wis- 
dom ; but of a wisdom by which the world knew 
not God. For centuries, had the wise men after 
the flesh been teaching, and writing, and boasting ; 
and as long had every wo been increasing, and 
every school becoming more perplexed in its doc- 
trines, and more abandoned in the practice of its 
disciples. No change, for the better, was hoped for 
from any human source. Then appeared " the wis- 
dom of God." Christianity, uninvited, unwel- 
comed, rejected; Christianity, persecuted as intru- 
sive, despised as foolishness, ridiculed as weakness, 
commenced at this crisis the bold work of regene- 
rating the world. Wherever she gained accepta- 
tion the face of society was renewed. Order, pu- 
rity, benevolence, justice, mercy, every personal, 
domestic, and public virtue increased as her in- 
fluence extended. Under her charge, immense 
communities of men and women were formed, who 



LECTURE X. 433 

soon became famous in the world for their earnest 
self-denying benevolence, and their devotion to ho- 
liness. No sooner was Christianity professed by 
the rulers of the Roman empire, than idolatry, with 
every unnatural crime and cruel amusement, was 
abolished from society, or compelled to deny its ex- 
istence. In proportion as this religion has reigned 
in any age or country, there has been a manifest 
increase of all the blessings of civilization, all the 
arts of peace, all the virtues of individual charac- 
ter, all the securities of a wise and equitable go- 
vernment. Nothing has retarded the growth of 
these benefits but what has alike retarded the 
progress of Christianity. No christian people have 
suffered on account of any evil, which Christianity 
has not directly opposed. Present efforts to spread 
this holy religion among the heathen demonstrate 
that her natural force is not abated, nor her in- 
fluence changed. What she did among the pagans 
of the first, she is accomplishing, though as yet by 
slower steps, among those of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Such has been from the beginning ; such is 
now ; and such, we have every reason to believe, 
ever will be the fruit of Christianity. By this she 
is known. By this let her claims to truth and di- 
vine original be judged. Every honest mind is 
capable of appreciating the evidence, and of ap- 
plying the law. It is a case by itself No party 
appears to claim the credit of what Christianity 
ascribes to herself Philosophy and the light of 
nature are joined to their idols and vices, and can- 
55 



434 LECTURE X. 

not come to the trial, and must therefore be ex- 
cused. Infidelity was tried during the " Reign of 
Terror " in France, and received its sentence at the 
guillotine, and therefore cannot come. Either the 
blessings we have described must be adjudged, ac- 
cording to the plea, to the gospel of Christ, or pro- 
nounced to be effects without a cause. Do they 
belong to the gospel, or to nothing 7 We speak 
the language of every conscience and of all com- 
mon sense when we say, the gospel alone produced 
them, and the gospel alone could produce them ; and 
should the gospel be thoroughly conformed to in all 
the world, the whole world would be morally reno- 
vated, and all those physical evils which proceed 
from the vices of mankind would pass away. 

What, then, is Christianity? "Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?" " Can a cor- 
rupt tree bring forth good fruit 7" This religion is 
either a truth or a fable ; the revelation of God, or 
the wicked and blasphemous contrivance of man. 
If it be the work of human contrivance, it must 
be unspeakably offensive to God, inasmuch as it 
ascribes all its doctrines directly to His teaching ; 
exalts its Founder to the dignity of the divine na- 
ture, calling him the Son of God, and making him 
equal to the Father in power and glory. Between 
its entire truth as a divine revelation, and its un- 
paralleled audacity and impiety as a human impos- 
ture, there can be no middle ground. The unbe- 
liever, in rejecting the former, must resort, if con- 
sistent, to the latter. Then let us see how much 



LECTURE X. 



435 



he is bound to believe in maintaining his position. 
He must believe that since the truth, according to 
his views, does not reside in Christianity, it does re- 
side in some or all of the systems of religion, or of 
philosophy, or of infidelity, to which Christianity is 
opposed. His creed, therefore, is substantially the 
following : ' I believe that in proportion as the world 
has ever been committed to the influence of those 
antichristian systems among which the truth is to 
be found ; it has been continually increasing in all 
moral degeneracy, having in it no spirit nor power 
of reformation. I believe, also, that in proportion 
as Christianity, which should be regarded only as a 
human contrivance of the grossest blasphemy and 
impiety, has reigned in the hearts and lives of men ; 
the world has been morally renovated, society hu- 
manized, benevolence invigorated, personal and 
public happiness extended and purified. Conse- 
quently, I believe that a God infinitely wise, holy, 
and true, has so constituted mankind, that for the 
improvement and well-being of society, we are un- 
der the necessity of believing and promoting what 
is not only false, but heinously offensive to Himself; 
truth must be concealed because we learn by ex- 
perience that its currency can only be accompa- 
nied with the greatest evils to the morals, the 
peace, the whole interest of mankind ; teachers of 
error and darkness must be depended upon as in- 
struments of human elevation, w^hile teachers of 
the truth should be discountenanced as capable of 
nothing but the unhinging of the whole frame- 



436 LECTURE X. 

work of private and public welfare.' These, I say, 
are the articles of belief which, whether avowed 
or not, do lie wrapped up in the rejection of Chris- 
tianity. The proof of this assertion is in the lec- 
ture we are now closing. I need not say that it 
sets, in strong and shining relief, the truth of the 
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a revelation 
from Him who is the giver of every good and per- 
fect gift. " For the preaching of the cross is to 
them that perish foolishness : but unto us which 
are saved it is the power of God. Where is the 
wise 7 Where is the disputer of this world 7 Hath 
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world 1 
For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by 
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the fool- 
ishness of preaching to save them that believe ; for 
the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after 
wisdom : But we preach Christ crucified, unto the 
Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks fool- 
ishness : But unto them which are called, both 
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and 
the wisdom of God."* 

* 1 Cor. i. 18—24. 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE XI. 



THE FRUITS OP CHRISTIANITY. 



The rule by which Christianity was tried in our 
last lecture, is as philosophical as it is scriptural. 
It is the rule of experiment, in distinction from all 
the whims of conjecture and ingenious theory, and 
has an application, as legitimate and conclusive, 
to the character of Christianity, as to that of any 
tree, or food, or medicine. None can deny that 
the experiment of the religion of Christ has been 
varied sufficiently to put it to the fairest trial, 
and continued long enough to develope its most 
hidden qualities. Exposed to all extremes of phy- 
sical and moral temperature ; tried upon all de- 



438 LECTURE XI. 

scriptions of human beings ; required to preserve 
its purity amidst all contagions ; to display its 
energies under all conceivable burdens and bonds ; 
to bear its fruit under the most blasting influences • 
and to stand against all possible combinations of 
enmity; sometimes subjected to the action of the 
fire, then of the rack, and then of the knife, of un- 
relenting persecutors; eighteen hundred years have 
measured out its trial, during which, whatever 
could be effected by science united with industry, 
malice united with power, or vigilance united 
with hypocrisy, has been done unceasingly to tor- 
ture it into a confession or a display of something 
at variance with divine original. The trial, there- 
fore, is sufficient. The tree has had time and am- 
ple opportunity to be known by its fruits. If it 
may not be finally tried by this rule, in the nine- 
teenth century of its budding and bearing, the fault 
must be sought in the rule itself, not in the subject 
of inquiry. 

In our last lecture we confined our attention to 
the fruits of Christianity in regard to society in ge- 
neral. In the present we are to consider 

Its fruits in regard to the character and 
happiness op its genuine disciples. 

It is not without reflection that I introduce this 
subject into the department of external evidence. 
I am aware that it is generally considered as be- 
longing exclusively to the class of arguments de- 
nominated internal ; but I see not with what pro- 
priety. So far as any effects of Christianity on 



LECTURE XI. 439 

individual disciples are incapable of being brought 
under the observation of others, being confined to 
the inward experience of the true believer, they 
are unquestionably internal in their character, and 
do not belong to our present department. But if 
they be such effects as witnesses can take know- 
ledge of; if the proof of them may be seen and 
appreciated by those that are without, and who 
can look only on the outward appearance ; I see 
not but they belong, as appropriately, to the exter- 
nal evidence, as any of the effects of Christianity 
upon society at large. Without further vindica- 
tion of a matter of mere classification, I proceed. 

I. The moral transformations which the gospel^ 
in all ages J has notoriously wrought^ and by unques- 
tionable proofs^ exhibited to the icorld, in the charac- 
ters of those who have become its genuine disciples, 
cannot be accounted for, but on the supposition of a 
divine 2^oiver accompanying its operation. 

To illustrate my meaning, let me describe what 
has been witnessed under the ministry of Chris- 
tianity so repeatedly, that hardly any who have 
been in the way of such things can have failed to 
become acquainted with apposite examples. Per- 
sons of all grades of society and of intellect, and of 
all degrees of enmity to the religion of Jesus ; in 
circumstances the most unpropitious to its in- 
fluence on their hearts ; even while they were 
filled with the spirit of malice and persecution 
against its truth and disciples ; have had their 
minds suddenly arrested by some simple expression 



440 LECTURE XI. 

of the Bible, or some unpretending statement of 
christian doctrine or experience ; perhaps it drop- 
ped from the lips of a minister against whom, at 
that very time, they were nerved with anger ; or 
was read in a Bible, or a little despised tract, that 
seemed accidentally to lie in their way, and at 
which, as if by accident, they condescended to look. 
It told them nothing new ; nothing but what they 
had often heard or read before without the smallest 
effect. And yet, w^ithout any argument to shake 
their ungodly principles, or special application, by 
any human being, of the word, thus heard or read, 
to their particular condition ; they felt their minds 
seized upon by an influence from which no effort 
of infidel argument, nor struggle of pride, nor 
drowning of thought, nor exertion of courage, nor 
devices of company and amusement, could enable 
them to escape. A hand seemed to be upon them 
which all their efforts to shake it off only fastened 
with more painful power. They could get no 
peace of mind till they submitted to its arrest. 
They were induced to listen to the gospel of 
Christ, even while deeply conscious of a cordial 
opposition to its requirements. A conviction of 
sin and condemnation, such as they had ever de- 
rided, soon brought them to a posture of body and 
a spirit of supplication before God, in which, a 
short time before, they would not have been seen 
for the world. Soon they submitted to the claims 
of the gospel ; became believers in Jesus ; confes- 
sed him before men, and appeared, to all that had 



LECTURE XI. 441 

known them before, — in ivhat aspect? As new crea- 
tiu^es ! Only a few days have elapsed smce they 
were notorious scoffers, bold blasphemers, angry 
persecutors ; of profligate habits, impure conversa- 
tion, and hardened hearts, armed at all points 
against religion ; immoveable, in. their own estima- 
tion, by any thing Christians could say, and re- 
garded by almost all that knew^ them as utterly 
beyond conversion. 

Now behold the change ! It is a change not mere- 
ly of belief, but of heart. Their whole moral nature 
has been recast ; affections, desires, pleasures, tem- 
pers, conduct, have all become new. What each 
hated, a few days since, he now^ affectionately loves. 
What then he was devotedly fond of, he now sin- 
cerely detests. Prayer is his delight. Holiness he 
thirsts for. His old companions he pities and loves 
for their souls' sake ; but their tastes, conversation, 
and habits, are loathsome to his heart. Feelings, 
recently obdurate, have become tender. A tem- 
per, long habituated to anger, and violence, and 
resentment, is now gentle, peaceful, and forgiving. 
Christians, whose company and intercourse he 
lately could not abide, are now his dear and chosen 
companions, with whom he loves to think of dwel- 
ling forever. The proud unbeliever is an humble 
disciple. The selfish profligate has become self- 
denied and exemplary, animated with a benevolent 
desire to do good. All these changes are so con- 
spicuous to others ; he has become, and continues 
to be, so manifestly a new man, in life and heart, 
56 



442 LECTURE XI, 

that the ungodly are struck with the suddenness 
and extent of the transformation. 

This is a drawing from life. That such cases 
have frequently occurred, and have been followed 
by all the permanent blessings of a holy life, in 
thousands of places, and before witnesses of all de- 
scriptions, it were a mockery of human testimony 
and of the faith of history to question. There is 
scarcely a faithful preacher of the gospel, whose 
ministry has not been blessed with such fruits. 
There is scarcely a village in this country, whose 
inhabitants cannot tell of many such examples. 
They began when Christianity began. They have 
been repeated as pure Christianity has been pro- 
moted and extended. Such a case was that of Saul 
of Tarsus. One moment he was a furious enemy 
of Jesus ; learned, talented, proud ; of high repu- 
tation ; of brilliant prospects ; the champion of Ju- 
dea against the gospel of Christ ; bearing the com- 
mission, and full of the spirit of a persecutor. The 
next, he was on his face on the ground, calling 
upon Jesus in the spirit of entire submission and 
deep repentance. In a few days, he was preaching 
Christ in the synagogues, at the risk of life, having 
made a total sacrifice of all earthly prospects and 
possessions, and given himself up to reproach, 
poverty, and universal hatred, for the sake of the 
gospel. All his dispositions, affections, and habits, 
had in that short space undergone so complete a 
change, without any human agency, that he had 



LECTURE XI, 443 

become, and continued to he, directly the oppo- 
site of his former character. Many similar ex- 
amples must have been included in those three 
thousand converts of the day of Pentecost, who, 
although v^^hen the morning rose upon them they 
were filled with all the enmity of Jews and of cru- 
cifiers of Jesus, before the day was over, were 
bowed at the feet of the same Jesus, as his baptized 
disciples. So changed were they in every worldly 
disposition, that they " sold their possessions and 
goods, and parted them to all men as every man 
had need ;" and all this under no human influence, 
but that of the preaching of men whom they began 
to hear with contempt, and of a doctrine to which 
they began to listen with the most rancorous aver- 
sion. How many thousand cases of the same kind 
would the domestic history of the first century of 
the gospel furnish ! What volumes might be filled 
with similar examples, which the annals of Chris- 
tianity in the nineteenth century, and especially in 
this country, would exhibit ! Who has attended 
to the blessed effects with which the distribution 
of tracts and bibles has been accompanied, and 
cannot call to mind instances in which the won- 
derful changes that were wrought in the Earl of 
Rochester, in Col. Gardiner, and in the once de- 
graded, and afterwards excellent John Newton, 
have in all important respects been equalled? 
Since I commenced the preparation of this lecture, 
a case in point has come to my view. Called from 
my study, to see a man who had come on business. 



444 LECTURE XL 

I found in the parlour, a well dressed person, of re- 
spectable appearance, good manners, and sensible 
conversation — a stranger. After a little while, he 
looked at me earnestly, and said : " I think, sir, I 
have seen your face before." " Probably," said I, 
supposing he had seen me in the pulpit. '^ Did you 
not once preach, in the receiving ship, at the navy- 
yard, on the prodigal son, sir 7" " Yes." '' Did you 
not afterwards go to a sailor sitting on his chest, and 
take his hand, and say, ' friend, do you love to read 
your Bible V " " Yes." " I, sir, was that sailor ; 
but then I knew nothing about the Bible or about 
God : I was a poor, ignorant, degraded sinner." I 
learned his history, in substance, as follows. He 
had been twenty-five years a sailor, and nearly all 
that time in the service of the British navy, in- 
dulging in all the extremes of a sailor's vices. 
Drunkenness, debauchery, profaneness made up 
his character. The fear of death, or hell, or 
God, had not entered his mind. Such was he, a 
sink of depravity, when an humble preacher of the 
Methodist denomination, one day, assembled a lit- 
tle congregation of sailors in the ship to wiiich he 
was attached, and spoke on the text : " Behold, 
now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day 
of salvation." He listened, merely because the 
preacher was once a sailor. Soon it appeared 
to him that the latter saw and knew him, though 
he was sitting where he supposed himself con- 
cealed. Every word seemed to be meant for a de- 
scription of him. To avoid being seen and mark- 



LECTURE XI, 445 

etl, he several times changed his place, carefully 
getting behind the others. But wherever he went, 
the preacher seemed to follow him, and to describe 
his course of life, as if he knew it all. At length 
the discourse was ended ; and the poor sailor, as- 
sured that he had been the single object of the 
speaker's labours, went up and seized his hand, 
and said: " Sir, I am the very man. That's just 
the life I have led. I am a poor miserable man ; 
but I feel a desire to be good, and will thank you 
for some of your advice upon the subject." The 
preacher bade him pray. He answered, " I have 
never prayed in my life, but that I might be 
damned, as when I was swearing; and I don't 
know how to pray." He was instructed. It was 
a day or two after this, while his mind was anx- 
ious but unenlightened, that Providence led me to 
him, sitting on his chest. He said I showed him a 
verse of the Bible, as one that would guide him. 
I asked if he remembered which it was. " Yes, it 
was, ' Him that cometh unto me I loill in no loise 
cast out.^ " Soon after this, his mind was comforted 
with a hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. 
His vices were all abandoned. He became, from 
that time, a new creature in all his dispositions 
and habits ; took special care to be scrupulously 
attentive to every duty of his station ; gained the 
confidence of his officers ; and, having left the ser- 
vice, has continued ever since (more than three 
years) an exemplary member of society, and of 
the church of Christ. He is so entirely renewed, 



446 LECTURE XI. 

that no one conld imagine, from his appearance or 
manners, that he had been, for twenty-five years, a 
drunken, abandoned sailor. This case I have se- 
lected only because it was at hand. It is by no 
means a solitary case. Nor is it any the worse for 
being taken from among the poor and ignorant. I 
know not that beastly vice is more susceptible 
of removal, or that habits of drunkenness, de- 
bauchery, and profaneness, are any more capable 
of being changed into those of soberness, purity, 
and prayer, for being seated in ignorance and 
poverty, than when associated with learning, rank, 
and opulence. 

Now, be it remarked, that the reality of such 
cases is a matter of fact, which one may question 
with about as much reason as he might deny the 
best established phenomena in natural history. 
Be it remarked, also, that in all such effects, the 
individuals concerned have ascribed the total 
change in their hearts and lives to the direct in- 
fluence of the word and Spirit of God, as set forth 
in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have generally 
been able to tell the particular truth, or combina- 
tion of scriptural truths, that awakened them from 
the death of sin, and led them to embrace the hope 
of Christ and the life of righteousness. Be it re- 
marked, also, that among all the cases of such con- 
versions in all ages, and regions, and circumstances, 
and with all varieties of character, there has been 
a wonderful identity. The same effects, essen- 
tially, have ensued under the application of the 



LECTURE XI. 447 

same gospel in the present century, as in the time 
of St. Paul; in modern Europe, as in ancient 
Greece and Rome; in Hindoostan, as in North 
America ; among Hottentots, and the islanders of 
the South sea, and savages of our western borders, 
as among the polished inhabitants of New York 
or London. "While all these varieties of age, cli- 
mate, customs, and cultivation, give a natural and 
pleasing variety to what may be called, in a figure, 
the complexion, and costume, in which the con- 
version appears ; the great change itself exhibits, 
under all circumstances, the same characteristic 
and inimitable features ; insomuch that if you 
draw the likeness of a genuine convert to Christ 
in his chief peculiarities, as manifested in this 
country, and send it to Burmah, or to the Sand- 
wich Islands, or to Caffre-land, or to Whampoa 
in China, or to Greenland, it will be considered 
a good likeness, in main points, of the dispositions, 
affections, tempers, habits, and life, produced by 
the converting power of the gospel in any of those 
widely differing regions. A genuine convert to 
Christ, in China, or in Africa, may come to this 
country, and find among genuine Christians here 
precisely his own feelings, tastes, sympathies, and 
labours, though he never saw an American or Eu- 
ropean before; and he will be more at home 
among their christian feelings, than he can be 
among the manners and dispositions of the people 
among whom he grew up and has always lived. 
Thus it is evident that, whatever be the cause of 



448 LECTURE XI. 

these universally similar effects, it must be the 
same cause, universally ; the same in all ages, and 
in all parts of the world. 

Now whether the gospel of Jesus Christ pro- 
duced these great and invariably corresponding ef- 
fects ; or whether they proceeded from some other 
universal cause, of which none of the subjects were 
ever conscious, and which was never known where 
the gospel was not known, and never operates but 
under the name, and by means of, the gospel; no 
man of any philosophical pretensions is at liberty 
to doubt. He has precisely the same reason to be 
assured that the gospel, and nothing else on earth, 
is the cause of these admirable fruits ] as that any 
medichie is the cause of a sick man's recovery to 
health ; or that any vine, rather than a thorn-tree, 
produced the grapes obtained from its branches. 

Then, since these effects unquestionably belong 
to the gospel, how are they to be accounted for 7 
It will not do to put them aside, under the uncere- 
monious imputation of fanaticism or enthusiastic- 
excitement. Words are not reasons. Infidel cant 
is not philosophical argument. If the gospel be 
untrue ; then, not only must these most excellent 
fruits be attributed to a corrupt tree, and these 
wholesome streams to a poisoned fountain ; but it 
must be supposed that such sudden and entire 
transformations of human character, from the low- 
est debasement of nature, to the highest principles 
of virtue and purity, are nothing more than the 
results of human agency and natural means. But 



LECTURE XI, 449 

if this be the case ; if a system of untruth in the 
hand of man has done all this, we have reason to 
expect that some other systems of doctrine, with 
the same agency, would be productive of equal 
effects. How then can it be accounted for, that 
nothing has ever been invented or heard of, in all 
the earth, to which any results of a like kind could 
be ascribed 1 Other causes have produced strong 
excitements, but no transformation of heart and 
life, from sin to holiness. Other means have im- 
proved the morals of men, by slow and in small 
degrees ; but none ever took hold of a human 
wreck, and lifted him up out of the mire and dirt 
of his profligacy, and carried him at once across 
the wide gulf that separated him from pureness, and 
in a few days placed him in a new moral region, 
with a new heart, and, in all things, a new crea- 
ture. How can this be explained, if the gospel be 
a human invention, and its effects of human pro- 
duction? Why should not infidels be capable, 
with all their wisdom and eloquence, of getting up 
a set of influences to rival these gospel wonders, 
and deprive Christians of this monopoly of the 
work of new creation and of holiness 7 How is it 
that in proportion as any church degenerates from 
the simplicity and purity of the gospel, it ceases to 
witness such changes in the people attendant on 
its preaching? It is nothing to say that many 
things called conversions eventuate in no good 
fruits, and are nothing more than the natural con- 
sequences of temporary excitement. This is freely 
57 



gniiiiM. Bgi yon do sot coademii a wIh^ or- 
ciiatRl because scsie c: lie xnees xnere not ^icce^- 
MLt gnlked; ntjo- aE TimjKNis meii. becai^e some, 
under idieptole^iQiii ot Tirtoe. are mete pretiaidas. 
It is soSeient tbat dtcMosandb and tboiisands <^ 
tJi^^e e^-r^ liare be«ai of Ae mo^ ladieal and p»- 
r -ifidieial e&aiaeter. Were dieT ei iat- 

:: rn : some^bin^ of a eoire^poedii!^ kind 
..red ftom olha- sooTces ; byodier 
::*C!ai:^taBs; in odier coanQies 
: r eali^tjened br the BiUe. 

l^_i__ _ :_> :_i ^ f-rT oecimed. we ai© taOj 
warranted in cc: .it il tomM msi ; coose- 

qtie&tlT^ diat tfef- -^ ^Vsre tlie reach of 

hnman powier. J .:«J wt f» bmiMmie 

libgir. O Z«an^ / vr , :^ Thk ticassre 

«rf Ae gc^pd. tf» r eMemen^to 

dispose E : power 

may be of . :rannot 

eoQifrf" : _" : . .' >:d 

:o?^ct> -Hiewndlilow- 

i?ii bearest the sfMmd 

'^r-re it ccmedi and 

.?iia of the winds 

elieTed. - *S» w 

> f .roteiitto pa^ finm 

:i:i—dmi Mmmmrmi 

:'-^ ^ - .-.;.- .- . : :c £.o.^-«,m «fl ms^, has 



LECTURE XI. 451 

notoriously wrought^ and, by unquestionable 2>'^'oofs, 
exhibited to the icorld, in the characters of those icho 
have become its genuine disciples, cannot be accounted 
for, but on the supposition of a divine power accom- 
panying its operations. 

II. We proceed to speak of the fruits of Chris- 
tianity, as displayed in the lives of its genuine dis- 
ciples, in contrast icith those ichich notoriously cha- 
racterize the lives of its opposers. The virtues of 
true Christians have been the same in all ages of 
Christianity. It was " with well doing" that, in 
the days of St. Paul, they were accustomed to 
silence their enemies. Having become free from 
sin, they became servants of righteousness, and had 
their fruit unto holiness. " Such were some of 
you," saith St. Paul to Christians of that famous 
brothel of all Greece, the city of Corinth ; '' Such 
were some of you (partakers in all vice) ; but ye 
are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justi- 
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
spirit of our God." The apostles could appeal to 
whole communities, for evidence of their blameless 
character. " Ye are witnesses and God also, how 
holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved 
ourselves among you." Even by the testimony of 
the ancient and deadly enemies of the gospel, the 
lives of Christians had no parallel among any other 
people. The early defenders of the faith publicly 
challenged a scrutiny of their virtues. It was 
their remarkable steadfastness in resisting the al- 
lurements of vice, and their heroic patience, under 



452 LECTURE XI. 

all the tortures employed to break their attach- 
ment to holiness, that often excited the bitterest 
hatred of their enemies. Compare the purity, be- 
nevolence, and humility of the apostles, with those 
of any philosophers of antiquity, or any leaders in 
modern infidelity. Pliny, the Roman governor, in 
the first century, having investigated extensively, 
and even by torture, the moral character of the 
Christians, who filled the province over which he 
presided, declares, in his celebrated letter to Tra- 
jan, that he could discover nothing more against 
them than that " they were accustomed, on a 
stated day, to meet before daylight, and to repeat 
among themselves a hymn to Christ as to a god, 
and to bind themselves by an oath not to commit 
any wickedness ; but, on the contrary, to abstain 
from thefts, robberies, and adulteries ; also not to 
violate their promise, or deny a pledge; after which 
it was their custom to separate, and to meet again 
at a promiscuous, harmless meal." Gibbon fully 
sustains this testimony. By his description alone, 
the primitive Christians were lights of unequalled 
excellence in the midst of heathen darkness and 
depravity. What Christians were in primitive 
ages, they still remain, exactly in proportion as you 
have reason to believe their hearts to be engaged 
in their faith. To say in this country that any one 
is a true Christian, is at once to give a certificate 
that he is worthy of all confidence, and more than 
usually virtuous: we could not desire a more 
complete proof of public opinion as to the personal 



LECTURE XI. 453 

fruits of the gospel. The bare fact that there are 
hypocritical professors of the christian character ; 
that bad men will put themselves to the self denial 
of endeavouring to act and seem like Christians, 
for the purpose of gaining confidence in their in- 
tegrity, is a strong proof of the public estimation 
in which christian virtue is held, and of the genuine 
gold of which the character of a real disciple of 
Christ is composed. Men never counterfeit a spu- 
rious currency. Copper coin is too cheap to tempt 
a forgery. We never hear of the wicked putting 
on the mask of infidelity, to secure a character for 
honesty, soberness, chastity, faithfulness, and be- 
nevolence. If christian virtue were not in high 
repute, and much more current in society than any 
other, hypocrites would take care to choose a mask 
that would sit more pleasantly upon their vicious 
propensities ; they would select a cloak that would 
less confine, and smother their sinful habits. It is 
notorious among us that no sooner do we hear of 
an individual that he has become a communicant 
in the church, than the presumption is that he is 
not only sober, honest, and of pure morality ; but 
that he has adopted principles of a very elevated 
virtue and purity, and is more than ordinarily be- 
nevolent. Whence this, but from the general ex- 
perience of what communicants are ? What is it 
that makes a breach of truth and honesty, or an 
act of cruelty, or a violation of justice, or a depar- 
ture from chastity or temperance, in a person pro- 
fessing to be a genuine Christian, so immediately 



454 LECTURE XI. 

and generally a matter of particular notice and 
surprise among all classes ] Is it not because such 
occurrences are singular, and little expected? 
But they excite no surprise, and but little atten- 
tion, when attached to those who reject Christian- 
ity ; because among such people they are neither 
singular nor unexpected. 

Why is it that parents so universally prefer to 
have genuine Christians intrusted with the educa- 
tion of their children ? that when places of trust 
and temptation are to be filled ; when men have 
property to invest, or agents to engage, in a busi- 
ness requiring special inflexibility of uprightness, 
they feel it to be at once a heavy weight in the 
scale of a candidate, that he is a sincere and de- 
voted Christian 1* Who are the benevolent, disin- 

* The lecturer was once particularly struck with the evidence 
of this. He was connected with the military academy at West 
Point. Two offices of great importance to the discipline of the 
corps of cadets were to be filled from its own ranks. The order of 
the academy had. suffered materially for want of officers in those 
places who would not swerve from duty out of deference to the 
public opinion, the persuasions or threatenings of their fellows. 
Two cadets were selected, who had recently become professors of 
religion. They were assailed with all manner of influence to in- 
duce them to relax in favour of certain indulgences to which a por- 
tion of the corps had been accustomed at the hands of their prede- 
cessors. I need not say they mildly, but firmly held to their duty. 
One day, as they were leading out the companies to which they 
were attached, for evening parade, I said to an officer of the institu- 
tion who had been chiefly instrumental in their selection : " Why 
have you chosen these cadets for such places 1 One of them, in- 



LECTURE XI. 455 

terested, self denied labourers in all good works 1 
Where do the poor, and hungry, and outcast, ap- 
ply for assistance with the most confidence of find- 
ing a sympathizing heart and a ready hand 1 Go 
around to all the noble institutions of charity ; to the 
asylums for orphans, for widows, for the blind, for 
the deaf and dumb, for juvenile criminals ; to the 
schools of gratuitous instruction. Take a list of 
those who give money, and time, and toil, for their 
support. What would become of them, were it 
not for the Christians associated in all their con- 
cerns ? Who are they that tread the loathsome 
alleys, and dive into the wretched habitations of 
vice and poverty, in crowded cities, in cold winter, 
hunting up the wretched subjects of disease and 
pollution, for the purpose of relieving and reclaim- 
ing them ? Who put themselves to the painful 
work of begging for the poor, and after bearing all 
the extreme unpleasantness of such a task, finish 
their labour in the careful distribution of their 
hard earned alms, asking no recompense but that 
of doing good 1 

From Christians in general, turn your attention 
to their leaders. Is it not well known that when 
a minister of the gospel can be commended for no- 
deed, has a fine soldierly appearance ; but the other is just the con- 
trary, and has nothing of the soldier about him." " Why (said 
he), the truth is, we required those who would do their duty with- 
out regard to the wishes and expectations of others, or to the cus- 
tom that has been prevalent in the corps ; and we knew thetj would 
be firm." I never heard of this confidence being disappointed. 



456 LECTURE XI. 

thing more than a moral life and unblemished ho- 
nesty, it is considered a positive condemnation 7 
To give him the highest praise that a Deist can 
pretend to, and then to say no more, is to leave his 
character under a taint. It is expected that he will 
be more than moral, and honest, and friendly. 
You look that he shall be holy ; eminently pure ; 
full of active benevolence, going about doing good. 
Prove that he is destitute of these distinguished 
virtues, and public opinion will adjudge him un- 
worthy of his name and profession. That all mi- 
nisters are not exemplary and devotedly holy men, 
only proves that the sacred office, like all others, is 
liable to be intruded on by the unworthy. Every 
body knows that such cases, instead of being fa- 
voured by the influence of Christianity, are directly 
opposed to it. But subtract from the number of 
the ministers of the gospel, every one on whom the 
least suspicion of a want of virtue ever rested; 
leave none, but those who at any moment can ob- 
tain, from all that know them, the praise of being 
the excellent of the earth ; and what a host will 
remain of men whose lives are conspicuous exam- 
ples of inflexible integrity and of exalted princi- 
ples of purity and holiness ; whose daily strength 
is laid out in efforts to benefit their fellow-crea- 
tures ; and around whom, at the bare mention of a 
charge implicating their characters, will be col- 
lected the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, with 
those who have been lifted up out of ignorance, or 
reclaimed from profligacy, or delivered from wretch- 



LECTURE XI. 457 

edness, in grateful defence of their best earthly 
benefactors. 

Now, for the sake of a contrast, let us turn to 
the lives of infidels. I do not deny that there are 
instances of such men, who have led what passes 
for a good moral life ; men of fair dealing in busi- 
ness, and of sober, decent habits; whom public 
opinion, the eustoms of society, intellectual occu- 
pations, and prosperous circumstances, have pre- 
served from the slavery of low propensities and 
criminal deeds. But what is there in such vir- 
tue, beyond a fair outside? Is it formed upon 
any foundation more meritorious than that of re- 
putation, interest, and the expectation of society? 
Could you trust its purity in the presence of strong 
temptation? What would become of it, should 
interest, reputation, and human customs, with- 
draw their countenance, and preach a contrary 
practice? But we speak of infidels, as a body. 
The fact that a few are singled out and marked 
as sober, honest, moral men, only proves that 
such cases are exceptions to the character of the 
heterogeneous body with which they are asso- 
ciated. It is a general rule, that wheii you say of 
a man " he is an infidel," it is to say that he is not 
a moral man ; not a benevolent man ; not a person 
to engage in any self denying labour^ for the pur- 
pose of doing good. This is public opinion, the re- 
sult of a long experiment of infidelity. Its foun- 
dation may be seen in the whole history of cri~ 
58 



458 LECTURE XI. 

minal jurisprudence. The records of our courts ; 
the annals of our penitentiaries ; the police of large 
cities ; the inner chambers of the gambling house 
and the brothel. Cases of seduction, adultery, and 
suicide, are the authorities to which reference 
should be made for the fruits of infidelity, as gene- 
rally exhibited. 

A French writer, addressing Voltaire, asks him : 
"Will you dare assert that it is in philosophic 
families we are to look for models of filial respect, 
conjugal love, sincerity in friendship, or fidelity 
among domestics'? Were you disposed to do so, 
would not your own conscience, your own expe- 
rience, suppress the falsehood, even before your 
lips could utter if?" An anecdote in point is 
related by Fuller. A man of literary eminence, 
but an infidel, was accustomed to converse with a 
brother sceptic where they were necessarily heard 
by a pious but uneducated countryman. After- 
wards, it came to pass that the educated infidel be- 
came an humble Christian. Feeling, now, a se- 
rious concern lest his conversation should have poi- 
soned the mind of the countryman, he inquired if 
such was the fact. " By no means," answered the 
other ; " it never made the least impression." " No 
impression ! Why you must have known that we 
had read and thought on these things much more 
than you had any opportunity of doing." " O yes," 
said the other ; " hut I knew also your manner of 
livins, I knew that to maintain such a course of 



LECTURE XI. 459 

conduct you found it necessary to renounce Chris- 
tianity."* 

It is well known how very seldom such a thing 
has occurred as the detection, in any penitentiary 
crime, of one who had enjoyed the benefit, for a 
considerable period, of a Sunday school education ; 
although, during the last twenty years, millions, in 
Great Britain and the United States, have had 
that privilege. What if all these had been trained, 
with equal diligence, in schools of infidelity ! How 
differently would the effects of the system have 
been marked upon the records of crime, and upon 
the peace, purity, and order of society ! 

The precise difference between the fruits of 
Christianity and of infidelity, as exhibited in the 
general assembly of their respective professors, 
consists in this : There are those who profess to 
be Christians, and yet are wicked men ; but they 
are wicked, in direct opposition to the influence of 
Christianity, as well as to the characters and in- 
fluence of those with whom they are connected. 
There are, also, those who profess to be infidels, 
and yet are men of sobriety, and amiableness, and 
moral deportment ; but they are such, in direct op- 
position to the influence of infidelity, as well as to 
the characters and influence of those with whom, 
as infidels, they are associated. The former and 
the latter are alike exceptions to the general rule. 

* Gospel its own Witness. 



460 LECTURE XI. 

But let us turn from infidels in general, to their 
teachers and leaders. A stream is seldom purer 
than its fountain. A river rises no higher than its 
source. We may consider the chief priests and 
scribes, the elders, and rulers, and champions of 
infidelity, who have constructed its various creeds 
and composed its books of scripture — its Humes, 
and Tindals, and Bolingbrokes, and Paines, and 
Voltaires, and Rousseaus — as affording, in the 
average of their character, a fair standard for the 
measurement of the moral stature of infidels in 
general. What, then, was the moral worth of 
those renouned leaders in the war against Chris- 
tianity ? Let us look at their principles. 

Herbert maintained that the indulgence of lust 
and anger is no more to be blamed than the thirst 
of a fever, or the drowsiness of a lethargy. Thus, 
every vicious propensity was licensed. Hobbes, that 
every man has a right to all things, and may law- 
fully get them if he can. Thus, all theft was li- 
censed. Again, that a subject may lawfully deny 
Christ before a magistrate, although he believes 
Christ in his heart. Thus, all hypocrisy was li- 
censed. Again, that a ruler is not bound by any 
obligation of truth or justice, and can do no wrong 
to his subjects. Thus, all tyrannical oppression and 
cruelty were licensed. Again, that the civil law is 
the sole foundation of good and evil ; of right and 
wrong. Thus, moral principle is as various as cli- 
mate and country, and vice in one, maybe exalted vir- 



LECTURE XI, 461 

tue in another. Hume maintained that self denial, 
self mortification, and humility, are not virtuous, 
but useless and mischievous ; that pride and self 
valuation, ingenuity, eloquence, strength of body, 
&c., are virtues ; that suicide is lawful and com- 
mendable ; that adultery must be practised, if we 
would obtain all the advantages of life ; that fe- 
male infidelity, when known, is a small thing; 
when unknown, nothing. Bolingbroke, that ambi- 
tion, the lust of power, avarice, and sensuality, may 
be lawfully gratified, if they can be safely grati- 
fied ; that modesty is inspired by mere prejudice, 
and has its sole foundation in vanity ; that man's 
chief end is to gratify the appetites and inclina- 
tions of the flesh ; that " adultery is no violation 
of the law, or religion of nature ; that there is 
no wrong in lewdness, except in the highest in- 
cest."* 

These principles will suffice as specimens of in- 
fidel writers in regard to moral obligation. It is 
fair to judge men by their professions. Few rise 
above their opinions, in practice ; none, in heart. 
When one contends that he may innocently indulge 
his vicious propensities, we need not doubt that he 
does indulge them. These writers either believed 
what they professed, or they did not. If the latter, 
they were gross hypocrites, endeavouring to spread 
what they knew was deadly poison. If the for- 
mer, then tell me what kind of practice, what ve- 

* See Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 



462 LECTURE XI. 

racity, what honesty, what chastity, or any other 
virtue, can be supposed to have dwelt in men who 
in grave, philosophical discussions could publish 
such sentiments to the world 7 Had we no other 
evidence of the lives they led, we might conclude 
with certainty, from these professed opinions, that, 
while one, here and there, may not have carried 
them out to their full extent, none could have been, 
in any sense, good men ; while the generality must 
have been without any regard to truth ; guilty of 
gross hypocrisy and dissimulation ; willing to offer 
any sacrifice at the shrine of ambition and human 
praise ; unbridled in temper and passion ; seducers, 
adulterers, and corrupters of their fellow-creatures. 
Such is the description which, so far as any accounts 
of their private characters have been received, is 
fully sustained by facts. 

Hume pretended to a great diligence in search 
of truth, and spent all his powers against the gos- 
pel, and yet, says Dr. Johnson, " confessed that 
he had never read the JVeio Testament loitli atten- 
tion.^^ His friend in scepticism, Adam Smith, con- 
sidered him " as approaching as nearly to the idea 
of a perfectly wise and virtuous man as perhaps 
the nature of human frailty will permit." But 
since, in his estimation, female infidelity, when un- 
known, was nothing ; one needs pretty positive evi- 
dence to believe that he was specially pure.* 

* That Hume was virtuous, without chastity, is evident from 
his essays. They contain passages, by way of wit or iUustration, 



LECTURE XI. 463 

Gibbon's moral character is seen in his History of 
the Roman empire; a work full of hypocrisy, per- 
version, and impurity ; the production of a mind as 
unchaste, as it was insidious. When he could not 
find an occasion to insult Christianity, he made it, 
by false glosses or dishonest colourings. " A rage 
for indecency pervades the whole work ; but espe- 
cially the last volumes. If the history were ano- 
nymous, I should guess that these disgraceful ob- 
scenities were written by some debauchee, who 
having from age, or accident, or excess, survived 

not only gratuitously introduced, but forced in by a mere amateur 
taste of the writer, which a chaste mind would not have thought 
of, and a man of chaste habits and principles would have rejected, 
as both polluting to his pages and disgraceful to his character. I 
cannot believe that one who could venture on such sentences be- 
fore the public eye, and show such pleasure and evident facility in 
grovelling indecencies of writing, was free from unclean practice 
where no public eye was to be encountered. And still, in Adam 
Smith's opinion, he may have been " as perfectly virtuous as the 
nature of human frailty would permit." What exceptions are in- 
cluded under this last clause, who can say ? In an infidel's creed, 
virtue has no more quarrel with unchasteness, than in the creed of 
the Spartans, it had with theft. Among the latter, nothing was 
required to make stealing virtuous, but concealment. Among the 
virtuosi of infidelity, what more is required to establish the inno- 
cence of impurity. 

The person who put out an edition of Hume's Essays in 
this country, dedicating it to the president of the United States, and 
lauding Hume and his principles to the skies, showed how he had 
profited by his favourite volume, at least by the Essay in defence 
of Suicide, by killing himself by drunkenness. 



464 LECTURE XI. 

the practice of lust, still indulged himself in its 
speculations ; and exposed the impotent imbecility, 
after he had lost the vigour, of the passions."* 
This was no " arrow shot at a venture." 

What gross hypocrisy and lying pervade the 
writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Shaftesbury, Woolston, 
Tindal, Collins, Blount, Chubb, and Bolingbroke ! 
One while they are praising Christianity, exalting 
Jesus, professing to have the sincerest desire that 
the gospel may be promoted. At another time, 
they are scoffing at its essential doctrines ; charg- 
ing its Founder with imposture; and diligently 
labouring to destroy it. Hobbes affirms that the 
scriptures are the voice of God, and the foun- 
dation of all obligation ; and yet that all religion 
is ridiculous. Shaftesbury says that it is cen- 
surable to represent the gospel as a fraud ; that 
he hopes its enemies will be reconciled to it, and 
its friends, prize it more highly ; and yet he repre- 
sents salvation as ridiculous ; insinuates that the 
designs of Christ were those of deep ambition, and 
his zeal and spirit savage and persecuting ; that 
the scriptures were an artful invention for merce- 
nary purposes. Collins protests that none are 
further from being engaged in the cause of infi- 
delity ; that he writes for the honour of Jesus, and 
the defence of Christianity ; to advance the Mes- 
siahship and truth of the holy Jesus, " to ivhom" 



LECTURE XI. 465 

he says, " be glory for ever and ever^ amen;" and 
yet he casts the most scurrilous reflections on this 
holy One, compares the gospels to Gulliverian 
tales, says they are full of absurdities, and must 
be rejected, and the authority of Jesus along with 
them.* 

Such are a few examples of the honesty of such 
men. What if Christians should thus flatter infi- 
delity, and next revile it '? When would their oppo- 
nents cease exposing their hypocrisy 1 The best 
of infidel writers cannot be trusted on the score of 
veracity, when Christianity is in question. The 
corruption of the texts of books, the misrepresen- 
tation of facts, the grossest unfairness in cita- 
tions, are accounted lawful by their Humes and 
Gibbons in this controversy. One of their own 
fraternity may here be allowed to testify. " If," 
says Rousseau, " our philosophers were able to dis- 
cover truth, which of them would interest himself 
about it? There is not one among them who 
would not prefer his own error to the truth disco- 
vered by another. Where is the philosopher, who, 
for his own glory, would not willingly deceive the 
whole human race ?" I need not spend time, after 
all that has been exhibited, in showing that such 
leaders in infidelity have evinced no spirit of bene- 
volence, no disposition to labour for the benefit of 
their fellow-creatures ; but on the contrary, have 

* Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 
59 



466 LECTURE XI. 

lived nnto themselves, and almost without excep- 
tion, cultivated the coldest selfi.shness. 

But to speak more directly of the morals of lead- 
ing infidels. Bolingbroke was a libertine of intem- 
perate habits and unrestrained lust. Temple was 
a corrupter of all that came near him, given up to 
ease and pleasure. Emerson, an eminent mathe- 
matician, was " rude, vulgar, and frequently immo- 
ral." " Intoxication and profane language were 
familiar to him. Towards the close of life, being- 
afflicted with the stone, he would crawl about the 
floor on his hands and knees, sometimes iwaying^ 
sometiiiies swearing J'' The morals of the Earl of 
Rochester are well known. Godwin was a lewd 
man by his own confession, as well as the unblush- 
ing advocate of lewdness. Shaftesbury and Col- 
lins, while endeavouring to destroy the gospel, par- 
took of the Lord's Supper, thus professing chris- 
tian faith for admission to office ! " Woolston was a 
gross blasphemer. Blount solicited his sister-in- 
law to marry him ; and being refused, shot himself. 
Tindal was originally a protestant, then turned 
papist, then protestant again, merely to suit the 
times ; and was at the same time infamous for vice 
in general, and the total want of principle. He is 
said to have died with this prayer in his mouth : 
' If there is a God, I desire that he may have mer- 
cy on me,' Hobbes wrote his Leviathan to serve 
the cause of Charles I. ; but finding him fail of suc- 
cess, he turned it to the defence of Cromwell, and 



LECTURE XI. 467 

made a merit of this fact to the usurper : as 
Hobbes himself unblushingly declared to Lord 
Clarendon."* Need I describe Voltaire'? — prince 
of scoilers, as Hume was prince of sceptics ; in 
childhood, initiated into infidelity; in boyhood, 
famous for daring blasphemy ; in manhood, distin- 
guished for a malignant, violent temper, for cold- 
blooded disruptions of all the ties and decencies of 
the family circle, for the ridicule of whatever was 
affecting, and the violation of whatever was confi- 
dential ! Ever increasing in duplicity and hypo- 
critical management, with age and practice ; those 
whom his wit attracted and his buffoonery amused, 
were either disgusted or polluted by his loath- 
some vices. Lies and oaths, in their support, were 
nothing to his maw. Those whom he openly 
called his friends, he took pains secretly to calum- 
niate ; flattering them to their faces, ridiculing and 
reviling them behind their backs. Years only 
added stiffness to the disgusting features of his im- 
piety, coldness to his dark malignity, and fury to 
his impetuous temper. Throughout life, he was 
given up '' to work all uncleanness with greedi- 
ness." Such was the witty Voltaire, who, in the 
midst of his levity, had feeling and seriousness 
enough to wis/i he had never been born. 

What shall we say of J. J. Rousseau ? — a thief, 
and liar, and debauched profligate, by his own 

* Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 



468 LECTURE XI. 

" Confession." Educated a protestant, he turned 
papist for '' subsistence ;" and afterwards professed 
protestantism again at Geneva, that he might enjoy 
the rights of citizenship, while all the while he w^as 
a fouhmouthed infidel. He began life as an ap- 
prentice. Having robbed his master and others, he 
fled and became a footman, in which capacity, 
having again acted the thief, he tried to swear the 
crime on a maid-servant, w^ho lost her place by his 
villainy. Stealing he never abandoned, however 
abandoned himself. Late in life, he said : " I have 
been a rogue, and am so still, for trifles which I 
had rather take than ask for." Of his intercourse 
with vile women ; how he took advantage of the hos- 
pitality of friends to ruin the characters of those who 
received him kindly ; how he coldly committed, one 
by one, the offsprings of his base connexions to the 
charity of the public, that he might be spared their 
trouble and have room for more ; how utterly de- 
void was this talented infidel of all natural afTec- 
tion, as well as all decency ; my lecture is too mo- 
dest to relate. To use his own language, guilty 
without remorse^ he soon became so without measure. 
Such was the man whom infidels have delighted to 
honour. The friends of Christ have reason to 
thank him for saying, ^^ I cannot believe the gospel. 
" For what communion hath light with darkness ?" 
And what concord hath Christ with Belial 7" 

Nothing but the circulation attempted, of late, 
to be given to the scurrilous writings of Paine, in- 



LECTURE XI. 469 

duces me to descend low enough amidst " the off- 
scouring of all things," to speak of the life of that 
miserable man. His first wife is said to have died 
by ill usage. His second was rendered so misera- 
ble by neglect and unkindness, that they separated 
by mutual agreement. His third companion, not 
his wife, was the victim of his seduction, while he 
lived upon the hospitality of her husband. Hold- 
ing a place in the excise of England, he was dis- 
missed for irregularity; restored, and dismissed 
again for fraud, without recovery. Unable to get 
employment where he was known, he came to this 
country, commenced politician, and pretended to 
some faith in Christianity. Congress gave him an 
office, from which, being soon found guilty of a 
breach of trust, he was expelled with disgrace. 
The French revolution allured him to France. 
Habits of intoxication made him a disagreeable in- 
mate in the house of the American minister, where 
out of compassion he had been received as a guest. 
During all this time, his life was a compound of in- 
gratitude and perfidy, of hypocrisy and avarice, of 
lewdness and adultery. In June, 1809, the poor 
creature died in this country. The lady in whose 
house he lived relates that " he was daily drunk, 
and, in his few moments of soberness, was always 
quarrelling with her, and disturbing the peace of 
the family." At that time " he was deliberately 
and disgustingly filthy." He had an old black wo- 
man for his servant, as drunken as her master. He 



470 LECTURE XI. 

accused her of stealing his rum ; she retaliated by 
accusing him of being an old drunkard. They 
would lie on the same floor, sprawling, and swear- 
ing, and threatening to fight, but too intoxicated to 
engage in battle. He removed, afterwards, to va- 
rious families, continuing his habits, and paying for 
his board, only when compelled. In his drunken 
jits, he was accustomed to talk about the immortality 
of the soul.* Probably much of his book against 
the inspiration of the scriptures was inspired by 
his cups. Such was the author of " the Age of 
Reason f^ such the apostle of mob-infidelity. Un- 
happy man ! Neither he, nor Rousseau, nor Vol- 
taire, is dead, except in the flesh. Their immortal 
souls are thinking as actively, at least, as ever. We 
and they will stand, on the same great day, before 
the bar of God. How awful, in reference to such 
despisers and scoflfers, is that description : " Behold 
he Cometh with clouds : and every eye shall see 
him, and they also ichich pierced him" 

III. We proceed to speak, in the last place, of 
the fruits of Christianity, as displayed in the deaths 
of its genuiiie disciples, in contrast with those con- 
nected ivith infidelity. 

There is no question to which the testimony of 
the death-bed is so legitimately applicable, as that 
between infidelity and Christianity ; not only be- 
cause the hour of death is specially to be relied on, 

* Cheetham's Life of Paine. 



LECTURE XI, 471 

as ail hour of dispassionate and conscientious judg- 
ment ; but, particularly, because it is one of the 
precious promises of the gospel, that true believers 
shall find the sting of death taken away, and ex- 
perience rich consolation and support, when heart 
and flesh are failing. Infidelity, also, has published 
her promises in relation to the trial of death ; and 
her disciples are not a little disposed to boast how 
confidently and fearlessly they could meet the king 
of terrors. Let us consult experience on this head. 
Have Christians experienced the fulfilment of the 
promises on which they trusted'? Have infidels 
made good their boasts 1 With regard to chris- 
tians, it is a most impressive fact that such a thing 
has never been hiown as any one being sorry ^ in the 
hour of death, that he had embraced the gospel of 
Chnst. We have often seen and heard of persons, 
who had spent their days in the careless neglect of 
religion, most bitterly lamenting, when they found 
themselves near to eternity, that they had not been 
devoted Christians. It is invariably the case that 
genuine Christians, when they look back on their 
lives, from the verge of the grave, are sorry that 
all their days had not been spent in a much more 
zealous consecration to the service of Christ. Pro- 
fessors of religion are not unfrequently unhappy 
when they come to die ; not because they are, or 
have been Christians, but only because they see 
reason to fear that they have not been real Chris- 
tians. This unhappiness arises from the conscious- 



472 LECTURE XI. 

ness of being too much like those who reject the 
gospel ; too little under the influence of its spirit ; 
too much under the influence of a practical unbe- 
lief. And they seek consolation, not by endea- 
vouring to banish the gospel from their minds, but 
by pressing to the feet of Jesus, and seeking to 
have their hearts filled by his spirit. But among 
all that ever named the name of Jesus, from the 
death of the martyred Stephen, to the present hour ; 
the millions upon millions of Christians, who have 
died under all m_anner of tortures, and in all man- 
ner of circumstances, calculated to try the strength 
of their faith ; not a philosopher or peasant ; not 
a noble or a beggar ; not a man, woman, or child ; 
w^as ever known to repent that his preparation to 
die was that of the faith of Christ. 

On the contrary, it has been the invariable eflfect 
of the religion of Christ that those who, in the days 
of health, were evidently devoted to its spirit and 
duties, when death approached, have been enabled 
to await the event with an humble, submissive, 
and cheerful mind, keeping a confident eye " unto 
Jesus," as the Finisher, as well as Author of their 
faith. They have felt it to be their most precious, 
their unspeakable consolation that they had been 
persuaded to be Christians. Nothing did they look 
back to with such thankfulness, as that, instead of 
having lived in indifiference or infidelity, they had 
lived a life of faith upon the Son of God. They 
have felt that however solemn and, to the flesh, 



LECTURE XI. 



473 



painful, was death, to them it was not gloomy nor 
appalling, nor any thing to be lamented ; but only 
a short valley in the way to their everlasting and 
blissful rest with God on high. The most timid 
by nature, have stepped down without fear or 
doubt, believing in Jesus, and walking by faith. 
The affectionate parent has found such an acces- 
sion of strength, in the act of separation from a 
beloved and helpless family, as to be enabled 
cheerfully to take the last look, and leave his fa- 
therless children with God. The young man, in 
the prime and promise of his years, with every 
thing that earth could give to make life desira- 
ble, has had the prospect of a better inheritance 
presented to his mind with such assurance, that he 
had a strong desire " to depart, and be with 
Christ." The nearer Christians have come to eter- 
nity, and the sharper the trial of their faith, the 
nearer have they drawn to Christ ; the more 
closely have they embraced his cross ; the more 
necessary has seemed his death for their sins ; the 
more precious and full of glory the whole plan of 
redemption. Such is the medium statement of the 
testimony furnished by the death-beds of the dis- 
ciples of Christ, when disease or the suddenness of 
departure has not prevented them from all testi- 
mony whatever. 

But, in innumerable instances, the facts are 

much more positive. It is frequently the case that 

dying Christians, as they draw near to eternity, 

seem to catch the song and share the bliss of hea- 

60 



474 LECTURE XI. 

ven. Their faith not only delivers them from 
gloom and fear, but fills them with joy and 
triumph. They are not only supported, but ex- 
alted ; unspeakably happier in the agonies of death, 
than ever they were in the vigour of health. As 
the body sinks, the spirit rises in strength of faith 
and confidence of approaching glory. A smile of 
joy plays upon the death-struck countenance. The 
tenderest affection, and the most benevolent inter- 
est for all around them ; earnest prayer that sinners 
may come to Jesus, and that his gospel may be 
embraced in all the world, occupy their latest mo- 
ments. They die, thanking God, ivho giveth them, 
the victory through Jesus Christ. 

This is no picture of imagination. It is drawn 
from facts which the lecturer has frequently had 
the privilege of witnessing ; facts such as have 
been often repeated in the observation of all whose 
duty has led them often to visit and converse with 
the dying, on the subject of religion ; facts of which 
the domestic history of the gospel, in all ages, is 
full, and of which no effrontery can attempt a de- 
nial. Paul, in the near view of a painful death, 
exclaimed : " I am now ready to be offered, and 
the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
a good fight ; I have finished my course ; I have 
kept the faith ; henceforth, there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not 
to me only, but unto all them also that love his 



LECTURE XI, 475 

appearing."* Polycarp, when they would have 
nailed him to the stake, said : " Let me remain as 
I am ; for He who giveth me strength to sustain 
the fire, will enable me also, without your securing 
me with nails, to remain unmoved in the fire." 
Then, being bound for a burnt offering, he ex- 
claimed : " O Father, I bless thee that thou hast 
counted me worthy of this day and this hour to 
receive my portion in the cup of Christ." Bilney, 
putting his finger into the flame of a candle, on the 
night before he was burned, repeated that pro- 
mise : " When thou walkest through the fire, it 
shall not burn thee ;" and said : " I constantly be- 
lieve that, howsoever the stubble of this|body shall 
be wasted by it, yet my soul shall be purged there- 
by ; a pain for the time, whereon, notwithstanding, 
foUoweth joy unspeakable." Hooper, going to the 
stake, being addressed by a papist in the language 
of condolence, answered : " Be sorry for thyself, 
and lament thine own wickedness ; for I am well, 
I thank God, and death, to me, for Christ's sake, 
is welcome." Bishop Bedell, apprehending a 
speedy dissolution, assembled his family, and, with 
many other words, declared : " Knowing that I 
must shortly put off this my tabernacle, I know 
also that I have a building of God, a house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. There- 
fore to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain, 
which increases my desire, even now, to depart 

* ii. Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8. 



476 LECTURE XI. 

and be with Christ, which is far better. I ascend 
to my Father and your Father, to my God and 
your God, through the all-sufficient merits of Jesus 
Christ, my Redeemer, who ever lives to make in- 
tercession for me." Fletcher's continual exclama- 
tion, while dying, was, " God is love ! God is love !" 
He panted for words to express what he felt in the 
utterance of that precious truth. Finley, in the 
act of departing, used such language as this : " A 
Christian's death is the best part of his existence." 
" Blessed be God, eternal rest is at hand." " The 
Lord hath given me the victory. I exult ; I tri- 
umph. Now I know that it is impossible that faith 
should not triumph over earth and hell." " Lord 
Jesus, into thy hands I commit my spirit ; I do it 
with confidence; I do it with fidl assurance. I 
knoio that thou wilt keep that which I have com- 
mitted to thee."* vSaid the dying Fayson : ." While 
my body is thus tortured, the soul is perfectly, per- 
fectly happy and peaceful, more than I can possi- 
bly express to you. I lie here and feel these con- 
vulsions extending higher and higher, without the 
least uneasiness ; but my soul is filled with joy un- 
speakable. I seem to swim in a flood of glory, 
which God pours down upon me. And I know, I 
knoiv that my happiness is but begun. I cannot 
doubt that it will last forever." And what shall I 
say more ? For the time would fail to tell of La- 

* See " Deaths of Hume and Finle;'- Compared," by Dr. Ma- 
son ; in the Tract, No. 190, of the American Tract Society. 



LECTURE XI. 477 

timer, and Ridley, and Hooker ; of Romaine, and 
Newton, and Scott ; of Svvartz, and Buchanan, 
and Martyn ; of Oberlin and Richmond ; of Evarts 
and Cornelius ; leaders in the faith, '^ of whom the 
world was not worthy." But should we go into 
the more retired walks of Christian life, and con- 
sult the annals of every village church, and gather 
out the examples of holy patience in suffering, and 
sublime faith, and deep humility, and joy unspeaka- 
ble in dying, which the eye of God has seen among 
the poor of this world, in every age, since the death 
of Christ ! what a cloud of witnesses would com- 
pass us about, uniting their joyful testimony to 
Jesus as " the resurrection and the life ;" to the 
gospel as, in all its promises, faithful and '' worthy 
of all acceptation !"* 

* A beautiful exhibition of the effects of the gospel is foiuid in 
the Narrative of the Loss of the Kent East Indiaman, in 1825. 
The account is given by Major M'Gregor, who was not rendered 
the less capable of calmly observing the events he has recorded, or 
of firmly bearing his part in the dangers of that awful crisis, in 
consequence of having his soul kept in peace by the precious hopes 
of a disciple of Christ. 

While the ship was burning below, and the magazine was every 
moment expected to blow np, and not a soul, out of more than six 
hundred, had a thought but of perishing either by fire or the tem- 
pest ; while some were standing in silent resignation, or stupid in- 
sensibility, and others were given up to the most frantic despair ; 
while " some on their knees were earnestly imploring with signifi- 
cant gesticulations, and in noisy supplications, the mercy of Him 
whose arm, they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite 
them ;" and others had sullenly seated themselves directly over 



478 LECTURE XI. 

Now, let us turn to infidelity. What confirma- 
tion has resulted, from the death-beds of infidels, 
to the truth of their faith, and its ability to sup- 
port and comfort the souls of its dying disciples ? 
Ah ! the change is like being translated from the 
beauty, and fragrance, and joyful promise of 
spring, into the coldness, and barrenness, and 
gloominess, of winter. 

Has infidelity ever exhibited a solitary example 
of that high and delightful consolation; that 
triumphant, unspeakable joy on the brink of the 
grave, of which Christianity can cite innumerable 
instances? It seems almost ridiculous to be at 

the magazine, that by means of the expected explosion a speedier 
termination might be put to their sufferings ; " Several of the sol- 
diers' wives and children, who had fled for temporary shelter into 
tYie after cabins, on the upper decks, were engaged in prayer, and 
in reading the scriptures with the ladies, some of whom were ena- 
bled, with wonderful self-possession, to offer to others those spiritual 
consolations, which a firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of 
the world appeared at this awful hour to impart to their own 
breasts. The dignified deportment of two young ladies in particu- 
lar formed a specimen of natural strength of mind, finely modified 
by christian feeling, that failed not to attract the notice and admi- 
ration of every one who had an opportunity of witnessing it. One 
young gentleman, having calmly asked my opinion of the state of 
the ship, I told him that I thought we should be prepared to sleep 
that night in eternity ; and I shall never forget the peculiar fervour 
with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, * My heart is 
filled with the peace of God.' " Comment would only mar such a 
beautiful testimony to the blessedness of a gospel faith. " Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee : be- 
cause he trusteth in thee." Is. xxvi. 3. 



LECTURE XI. 479 

pains enough to answer such a question. Infi- 
delity has no doctrine, no promise, out of which 
such a delightful frame of mind could grow. In- 
fidels feel themselves so infinitely removed from it, 
that it seems to them, in the distance, as something 
incomprehensible, or visionary, or fanatical. But 
are there not examples of such persons dying with- 
out fear? Unquestionably there are; but how 
few of them have any application to the present 
argument ! The great majority of them have been 
cases in which the lethargy or delirium occasioned 
by disease prevented the patient from being sensi- 
ble of his condition ; or his death succeeded so im- 
mediately after the symptoms of his danger, as to 
allow no time for the consideration of his eternal 
interests ; or his friends took care that he should 
be kept in ignorance of the fatal character of his 
disorder, until it was too late for any thing but in- 
sensibility and dissolution ; or else the unhappy in- 
fidel, suspicious of his steadfastness when the trial 
should arrive, surrounded himself with such com- 
panions as would guard his bedside from the ap- 
proach of any minister of better consolations, and 
keep his mind amused with trifles, and his pride 
stimulated with the ambition of holding out to the 
last. Undoubtedly there have been cases to which 
none of these specifications are applicable ; cases 
of infidels, who, in quietness, with their intellects 
in sound and wakeful exercise, and with a know- 
ledge of their nearness to eternity, have died with- 
out the manifestation of alarm But this has no- 



480 LECTURE XL 

thing to do with our point. We could speak of 
multitudes who believed Christianity, and had no 
idea that they were prepared to meet their God ; 
but, nevertheless, died without alarm. The ques- 
tion is, does infidelity sustain and comfort its disci- 
ples in the hour of death ? It can hardly be ne- 
cessary to assert, that whatever calmness any of 
them may have manifested had no manner of con- 
nexion with their infidel principles. They might 
have had the same, as well without infidelity, as 
with it. They did not pretend to draw strength 
and peace from its barren breasts. What was 
called, in their case, resig7iation, was not the off- 
spring of their principles, as infidels, but of their 
doom, as mortals. They had to die, and there was 
no use in complaining ; this is about the amount of 
all their consolation. Most gladly would they have 
entreated to live, could they have supposed that 
entreaty would have succeeded. Death has never 
been regarded by such men, except as a necessary 
evil in every respect, only to be submitted to be- 
cause irrevocably appointed. Such is the very 
best account Ave can give of the testimony of the 
death-beds of infidels. It is dreary, desolate, cold. 
It whispers something that should go to the heart 
of a sceptic. Its dismal negativeness is positive 
condemnation. Where, in all this region of emp- 
tiness, is the sweet serenity, the cheerful resigna- 
tion, the positive pleasure and happiness in pro- 
spect of death, which so generally attend the dy- 
ing Christian ? Where is your parallel, in a sin- 



LECTURE XI. 481 

gle iniidel, to the joyful welcome which death has 
received, in a million cases, at the lips of the fol- 
lowers of Christ, when they have felt themselves 
almost home, and, in view of heaven, have longed 
to depart and be with Christ ? 

No case of a dying unbeliever has been made so 
much of, by way of a set-off to the testimony of 
Christians, as that of David Hume. The evident 
object of Adam Smith, the narrator, is to put up 
his friend for a comparison with believers. Gibbon 
says : " He died the death of a philosopher." No- 
thing can be more affected, more evidently contrived 
for stage effect ; or, even on infidel principles, more 
disgraceful to such a mind as Hume's, than the 
manner of his death, according to the account 
given by his friend. He knew^ his end was near. 
Whether he was to be annihilated, or to be forever 
happy, or forever miserable, was a question involved 
on his own principles, in impenetrable darkness. 
It was the tremendous question to be then decided. 
Reason and decency demanded that it should be 
seriously contemplated. How does he await the 
approach of eternity 1- Said Chesterfield (an infi- 
del also) : " When one does see death near, let the 
best or the worst people say what they please, it is 
a serious consideration." Does Hume treat it as a 
serious consideration? He is diverting himself! 
With what ? With preparing his Essay in defence 
of Suicide for a new edition; reading books of 
amusement ; and sometimes with a game at cards ! 
He is divei^ting himself again! With what next? 
61 



482 LECTURE XI. 

With talking silly stuif about Charon and his hoat^ 
and the river Styx ! Such are a philosopher's di- 
versions, where common sense teaches other peo- 
ple to be, at least, grave and thoughtful. But why 
divert himself? Why turn off his mind from death ? 
Why the need of his writings, and his cards, and 
his books of amusements, and his trifling conversa- 
tions ? Was he afraid to let his mind settle down 
quietly and alone to the contemplation of all that 
was at stake in the crisis before him*? What- 
ever the explanation of his levity, it was ill timed, 
out of taste, badly got up ; an affected piece of 
over-acting, intended for posthumous fame, to say 
the best of it. He died " as a fool dieth," Take 
his own views, as thus expressed, at the end of his 
Natural History of Religion : " The comfortable 
views exhibited by the belief of futurity are ra- 
vishing and delightful. But how quickly vanish on 
the appearance of its terrors, which keep a more 
firm and durable possession of the human mind 1 
The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable 
mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judg- 
ment, appear the only result of our most accurate 
scrutiny concerning this subject." In his own es- 
timation, then, futurity had its terrors. Doubt, in- 
explicable mystery, hung over his future destiny ! 
Whether he was not to be a child of hell forever, 
his most accurate scrutiny could only suspend his 
judgment ! In this tremendous suspense, he plays 
cards, as it were, on his coffin lid ! jests about ridi- 
culous fables, as he steps down to the momentous 



LECTURE XI, 483 

uncertainties, but eternal realities, of the future ! 
If a finger had been about to receive its sentence, 
whether to be amputated or not, he would at the 
least have been more grave. How far such a death- 
bed scene is honourable to philosophy or infidelity, 
or fit to be compared with that of millions of Chris- 
tians, I need not say. But this is the fairest as- 
pect of the matter on the side of infidelity.* 

* There is reason to believe that, however unconcerned Hume 
may have seemed in the presence of his infidel friends, there were 
times when, being diverted neither by companions, nor cards, nor 
his works, nor books of amusement, but left to himself and the con- 
templation of eternity, he was any thing but composed and 
satisfied. 

The following account was published many years ago in Edin- 
burgh, where he died. It is not known to have been ever contra- 
dicted. " About the end of 1776, a few months after the historian's 
death, a respectable looking woman, dressed in black, came into 
the Haddington stage coach, while passing through Edinburgh. 
The conversation among the passengers, which had been inter- 
rupted for a few minutes, was speedily resumed, which the lady 
soon found to be regarding the state of mind persons were in at 
the prospect of death. An appeal was made, in defence of infi- 
delity, to the death of Hume, as not only happy and tranquil, but 
mingled even with gaiety and humour. To this the lady said : 

* Sir, this is all you know about it ; I could tell you another tale.' 

* Madam,' replied the gentleman, ' I presume I have as good infor- 
mation as you can have on this subject, and I believe that what I 
have asserted regarding Mr. Hume has never been called in ques- 
tion.' The lady continued : ' Sir, I was Mr. Hume's housekeeper 
for many years, and was with him in his last moments ; and the 
mourning I now wear was a present from his relatives for my at- 
tention to him on his death -bed; and happy would I have been 
if I could have borne my testimony to the mistaken opinion that 



484 LECTURE XI. 

We said, the case could not be mentioned of any 
one having regretted, on his death-hed, that he had 

has gone abroad of his peaceful and composed end. I have, sir, 
never, till this hour, opened my mouth on this subject ; but I think 
it a pity the world should be kept in the dark on so interesting a 
topic. It is true, sir, that when Mr. Hume's friends were with him 
he was cheerful, and seemed quite unconcerned about his approach- 
ing fate ; nay, frequently spoke of it to them in a jocular and play- 
ful way ; but when he was alone, the scene was very different ; he 
was any thing but composed ; his mental agitation was so great 
at times as to occasion his whole bed to shake. He would not al- 
low the candles to be put out during the night, nor would he be 
left alone for a minute. I had always to ring the bell for one of 
the servants to be in the room, before he would allow Bie to leave 
it. He struggled hard to appear composed, even before me. But 
to one who attended his bedside for so many days and nights, and 
witnessed his disturbed sleeps and still more disturbed wakings ; 
who frequently heard his involuntary breathings of remorse and 
frightful starlings ; it was no difficult matter to determine that all 
was not right within. This continued and increased until he be- 
came insensible. I hope in God I shall never witness a similar 
scene." — Christian Observe}^, vol. xxxi. p. 665. 

There is internal evidence of truth attached to the above. Hume 
had no opinions with regard to God, or the future, except that all 
was doubtful. Whether there was a God, a future state, a hell, or 
annihilation, he did not profess to know. The future had its ter- 
rors, he acknowledged. To him,they were terrors of darkness and 
uncertainty. He spoke of " the calm, though obscure regions of 
philosophy." He called the whole question as to man's future des- 
tiny, " a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery.''^ All he could 
arrive at was, " doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judgment." In this 
state of mind, nothing could have been more forced or unnatural 
than the levity described hy Smith. That was his stage-dress. If 
a man lay a hundred pounds upon a game, he is anxious till the 
^uncertainty as to its fate be removed. But Hume knew that his 



LECTURE XI. 



485 



lived a Christian. We now say, that cases innu- 
merable have occurred of persons bitterly lament- 
ing, when dying, that they had lived in infidelity. 
Every Avhere, such instances have occurred. They 
are too notorious to need citation. The boldest 
unbelievers have furnished the most numerous 
examples. They have felt every foundation re- 
moved, when heart and flesh began to fail. What 
they had boasted in life, they found a miserable 
comforter in death. The earl of Rochester, a 
scholar and a blasphemer, as deep in vice as in 
infidelity, when he approached the end of life, be- 
came a thorough penitent ; and, to one of his former 
companions, said from his death-bed : " O, remem- 
ber that you contemn God no longer ! He is an 
avenging God, and will visit you for your sins; 
and will, I hope, in mercy, touch your conscience, 
sooner or later, as he has done mine. You and I 
have been friends and sinners together, a great 
while. We have been all mistaken in our conceits 

ALL, FOREVER, was at Stake; and that he was unconcerned, un- 
anxious, when not diverted, is incredible. On the other hand, the 
account presented above is exactly what natu.re and reason would 
expect from the state of mind in which the philosopher described 
himself, as to all that awaited him, Not to be penetrated with 
anxiety of the most painful kind, when a few hours were to decide 
whether he was to be annihilated, or to be carried to the judgment 
seat of God, and find all that he had ridiculed in the gospel true, and 
be condemned to eternal misery — a destiny which, on his own 
principles, was as likely as any thing else — could only be accounted 
for on the supposition that disease or friends diverted his attention 
from the decision approaching. 



486 LECTURE XI. 

and opinions ; our persuasions have been false and 
groundless; therefore I pray God grant you re- 
pentance." To those who had been drawn into 
sin, by his example and encouragement, he said : 
" I warn them no more to make a mock of sin, or 
contemn the pure and excellent religion of my 
ever blessed Redeemer, through whose merits alone, 
I, one of the greatest of sinners, do yet hope for 
mercy and forgiveness." 

Hobbes could never bear to talk of death. His 
mind was haunted with tormenting reflections. If 
his candle went out in the night, while he w^as in 
bed, he was in misery. As he descended to the 
grave, he said " he was about to take a leap in the 
dark." 

Struensee, prime minister of Denmark, and 
Brandt, the companion of his disgrace and impri- 
sonment, had both been poisoned by the writings 
and society of Voltaire ; and both, in prospect of 
death, renounced infidelity with detestation, and 
embraced the gospel as all their hope. 

Shall I lead you to the horrible spectacle of Vol- 
taire, in the arms of death, and expecting in a few 
moments to stand at the bar of God. He has just 
returned from a feast of applause in the theatre, 
to be laid on a bed of death, in the agonies of an 
upbraiding conscience. The physician enters, 
" Doctor," said the apostle of infidelity, with the 
utmost consternation, " I am abandoned by God 
and man. I will give you half of what I am worth, 
if you will give me six months' life." The physi- 



LECTURE XI, 487 

cian told him he could not live six weeks. " Then," 
said he, " I shall go to hell." His companions in 
guilt, D'Alembert, Diderot, and Marmontel, hasten 
to keep up his courage, but meet nothing but re- 
proach and horror. In spite of the guard of infidels 
about him, he sends for the Abbe Gautier to come 
as soon as possible. In his presence, and that of 
other witnesses, he signs a recantation of infidelity, 
and professes to die in the church. It is sent to 
the rector of St. Sulpice and the archbishop of 
Paris for approval. The Abbe Gautier returns 
with it, but cannot enter. Every avenue to the 
dying infidel is defended by those who had shared 
in his conspiracy against Christianity. They want 
to hide his terrors and their own shame. Now it 
is, that D'Alembert, Diderot, and about twenty 
others, of like character, who beset his apartment, 
never approach him but to hear their condemna- 
tion. " Retire !" he often exclaims, with execra- 
tions, " it is you that have brought me to my pre- 
sent state ! Begone ! I could have done without 
you all ; but you could not exist without me ! And 
wiiat a wretched glory have you produced me T' 
Then his conspiracy comes before him, and, alter- 
nately supplicating and blaspheming, he complains 
that he is abandoned by God and man, and often 
cries out : " Oh Christ ! Oh Jesus Christ !" Hq is 
looking on Him lohom he pierced ! He is drinking 
the cup of trembling ! the foretaste of the second 
death ! The Mareschal de Richelieu flies from the 
scene, declaring it " too terrible to be sustained." 



488 LECTURE XI. 

The physicians, thunderstruck, retire; declaring 
" the death of the impious man to be terrible in- 
deed." One of them pronounces that " the furies 
of Orestes could give but a faint idea of those of 
Voltaire"* 

We shall close these awful scenes, with a few 
glances at the dying Paine. Once it was his boast 
that, during a dangerous illness, he thought with 
new satisfaction of having written the Age of Rea- 
son, and found, by experiment, that his principles 
were sufficient to sustain him in expectation of 
death. It was an empty boast ! Let us see him 
wiien really dying. He would not be left alone 
night or day. If he could not see that some one 
was with him, he would scream till a person ap- 
peared. A female attendant more than once found 
him in the attitude of prayer. Having asked her 
what she thought of his Age of Reason, and being 
answered that, from a conviction of its evil ten- 
dency, she had burnt it ; he wished all its readers 

* " The nurse who attended him, being many years afterwards 
rei^uested to wait on a sick protestant gentleman, refused, till she 
was assured he was not a philosopher ; declaring, if he were, she 
would on no account incur the danger of witnessing such a scene 
as she had been compelled to do at the death of M. Voltaire. I re- 
ceived this account (adds the Right Rev. Daniel Wilson) from the 
son of the gentleman, to whose dying bed the woman was invited, 
by a letter now in my possession." 

': The above account is abridged from the " History of Jacobin- 
ism," by the Abbe Baruel, and has been denied by no one of 
the many witnesses to the death of Voltaire. 



LECTURE XI. 489 

had been as wise, and added : " If ever the devil 
had an agent on earth, I have been one." An in- 
fidel visiter said to him : " You have lived like a 
man ; I hope you will die like one." He turned to 
others in the room, and said : " You see what mi- 
serable comforters I have." The woman whom 
he had enticed from her husband lamented to a 
neighbour her sad condition. " For this man," 
she said, " I have given up my family and friends, 
my property and my religion ; judge then of my 
distress, when he tells me that the principles 
he has taught me will not bear me out." Well 
might she be distressed, when she heard his excla- 
mations. " He would call out, during his pa- 
roxysms of distress, without intermission, ' O Lord 
help me, God help me, Jesus Christ help me, O 
Lord help me,' &c., repeating the same expressions 
without any, the least, variation, in a tone of voice 
that would alarm the house."* 

And now what need be said in conclusion 7 You 
have seen the fruit of the trees. One produces 
corruption ; the other holiness of life. One roots 
up ; the other nourishes and cherishes whatever is 
good around it. The spread of infidelity is that of 
vice, and disorder, and all confusion. The spread 
of Christianity is that of purity, peace, and all the 
virtues of the social state. The more thoroughly 
an individual embraces infidelity, the more entirely 

* Cheetham's Life of Paine 
62 



490 LECTURE XI. 

does lie become the slave of sin. The more perfect- 
ly he embraces the gospel, the more perfectly, does 
he become the example of whatever is lovely and 
of good report. No infidel ever rose higher than 
the chill composure of a Stoic's firmness, in the 
trial of death. Multitudes and the chief of infidels 
have, in that honest hour, abandoned their senti- 
ments with horror. On the other hand, no Chris- 
tian ever regretted, when dying, that he had be- 
lieved the gospel ; all have only w^ished they had 
followed it more diligently ; and, in cases innume- 
rable, disciples of Christ have risen to the most 
triumphant emotions of joy and praise, and the 
most exulting assurance of eternal life and glory, 
in the very act of departing for eternity. 

Is a tree known by its fruits ? Then which of 
these is the tree of life ? Which looks like truth 1 
Which is to be cut down, and cast into the ever- 
lasting burning 7 

The whole argument, of this and the preceding 
lecture, may be well concluded with an applicable 
and true saying of Hume. Being asked by a friend, 
to whom he used to refer his essays, previously to 
publication, whether he thought that, if his opin- 
ions were universally to take place, mankind would 
not be rendered more unhappy than they were ; 
and whether he did not suppose that the curb of 
religion was necessary to human nature ; " The ob- 
jections," answered he, ''are not without weight, 

but ERROR NEVER CAN PRODUCE GOOD." Sucll is pre- 



LECTURE XI. 491 

cisely the text of this and the preceding lecture. 
" Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of this- 
tles ?" " The tree is known by its fruits/' said the 
Saviour. " Error never can produce good," said 
the man who denied him. By this, let the compa- 
rative merits of Christianity and infidelity stand or 
fall. 

How imperative, then, is the exhortation to all 
professors of the religion of Jesus : '' Let your light 
shine before men !" " Be careful to maintain good 
works !" '' Let your conversation be as it be- 
cometh the gospel of Christ !" To you, is commit- 
ted the honour ; on you, depends the character of 
Christianity among the unbelieving and disobe- 
dient. Its most legible and universally imposing 
evidences are found in the living epistles of those 
who, under the influence of its saving truth, are 
seen devotedly " following after righteousness, 
godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness ;" " using 
the world, as not abusing it';" looking for death, as 
not fearing it ; cheerful in all duty, while they re- 
main on earth ; happy when the time comes for 
them to depart out of it unto the Father 7 Ah ! if 
all that are numbered among Christians were thus 
radiant in the beauty of holiness, how soon would 
the whole earth be filled with the praise of the 
Lord ! Then, indeed, w^ould the church put on 
strength. Then would the gentiles come to her 
light, and kings to the brightness of her rising ; all 
they that despise her should bow themselves down 



492 LECTURE XI. 

at the soles of her feet ; and they should call her, 
" The city of the Lord ; the Zion of the Holy One 
of Israel."* 

* Isaiah Ix. 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE XII. 



SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT, AND APPLICATION TO 
OBJECTIONS. 



In the course of the precedmg lectures, I have 
been enabled, by a kind Providence, blessing me 
with a more adequate measure of health than I 
anticipated, to spread before you a comprehensive 
view of the external evidences of Christianity. 
Although one whole division of our forces, and one 
of no secondary consequence, has not been brought 
into the field; and of that which has been em- 
ployed, several important subdivisions have been 
held in the back ground for want of room to dis- 
play them ; enough, I trust, has been done to give 
you an impressive idea of what the strength of the 



494 LECTURE XII. 

cause must be, when all the immense variety of 
auxiliaries composing its host are arranged toge- 
ther under the command of a mind capable of 
using them to the best advantage. It would stand 
like the massive squares of British infantry at Wa- 
terloo, to which the boasting enemy rode up again 
and again, in the full confidence of sweeping them 
before the impetuosity of their charge. But " their 
onset and reception was that of a furious ocean 
pouring itself against a chain of insulated rocks."* 

Before relinquishing our course, it is important 
to take a brief retrospect of the ground we have 
been over ; that we may gather into united and co- 
operating force the several lines of argument which 
as yet have been employed only in their separate 
efficiency. 

After having divided the whole field of evidence 
into the two general departments of external and 
internal^ and separated the former, as that to which 
our course would be confined, we proceeded to lay 
the foundation of all our subsequent reasonings by 
making good the authenticity of the books of 

THE NEW TESTAMENT, and the CREDIBILITY OF THE 

HISTORY contained therein. In reference to the 
question of authenticity, we instituted an inquiry 
whether there is sufficient evidence that the seve- 
ral scriptures composing the New Testament were 
written by the men whose names they bear, the 
original apostles and disciples of Christ ? For an 

* Scott's Napoleon. 



LECTURE XII. 495 

answer to this, we pursued precisely the same me- 
thod as in determining the authenticity of any 
other writings. The evidence required in such in- 
vestigations was shown to be so unaffected by time, 
that whether a book be ascribed to the christian 
era or to five centuries earlier or later, a similar 
description of proof would possess a similar con- 
clusiveness. That for the authenticity of the 
books of the New Testament was presented under 
the following heads : They are quoted or alluded 
to by a series of writers extending, in unbroken 
succession, from the present to the apostolic age. 
In the earliest writers of this series, as well as the 
later, they are treated with peculiar respect, as 
possessing an authority belonging to no other books, 
and as conclusive in all questions of religion ; they 
were collected at a very early period into a distinct 
volume ; were publicly read and expounded in the 
assemblies of the primitive Christians ; commenta- 
ries were written upon them ; harmonies were 
formed out of them ; different copies were carefully 
compared, and versions were made into different 
languages, in the first centuries of Christianity. 
Hence it appeared that the agreement of the an- 
cient church, as to what were the authentic books 
of the New Testament, was complete, and was no 
more imperfect among the various sects of heretics, 
than among the orthodox fathers. None of these 
several heads of evidence attach to any of those 
spurious writings commonly called Apocryphal 
Scriptures ; while the marks of the spuriousness of 



496 LECTURE XII. 

these can be asserted with regard to none of those 
which are esteemed as authentic. In confirmation 
of the mass of testimony, adduced in support of 
these propositions, we exhibited a most important 
collection of proofs from the writings of the early- 
adversaries of Christianity. The style and lan- 
guage of the New Testament were spoken of, as 
in perfect agreement with the local and other cir- 
cumstances of its reputed writers; as in perfect 
harmony with their known character, and with the 
age and country in which they lived; and such as 
could not have been produced in any age subse- 
quent to theirs. In conclusion of the whole argu- 
ment, we endeavoured to show that such was the 
necessity of detection, in case of a forgery, during 
the primitive centuries, that had the books in ques- 
tion been deficient in the evidence of apostolic ori- 
gin, nothing less than a miracle in their aid could 
account for their early and universal currency. 
The whole train of evidence concluded with this 
result : that to suppose the New Testament unau- 
thentic or even questionable in this particular, is to 
resign the authenticity of every other book of the 
least antiquity ; yea, and the sufficiency of human 
testimony, in its most conclusive form, to establish 
the authenticity of any such work. Having come 
to this, it seemed no presumption to proceed in our 
subsequent lectures, as if the question of authenti- 
city were answered in the affirmative with entire 
satisfaction. 



LECTURE XII. 497 

But in connexion with the apostolic origin, it 
was important to look into the integrity of the 
New Testament scriptures; for the purpose of 
ascertaining to what extent they have been pre- 
served without mutilation or corruption. That 
they have undergone no material alteration since 
they were first published, was inferred from the 
perfect impossibility of such a change ; from ob- 
vious agreement among the existing manuscripts 
of the New Testament ; and from the harmony of 
our present text with the numerous quotations in 
the works of early christian writers, and with those 
alncient translations which are still extant. 

But in laying the foundation of our subsequent 
jlrgument, another question remained : Is the his- 
tory, contained in these authentic writings, credi- 
ble ? Is it so true that what it relates, as matter 
of fact, is worthy of entire reliance as matter of 
fact, independently of all inferences or doctrines 
connected therewith ? In ansvt^er to this, we as- 
sumed that the credibility of the gospel history is 
to be ascertained precisely like that of any other 
history. It appeared that, in questions of this kind, 
the two great points to be proved are, a compe- 
tency of knowledge, and trustworthy honesty, on the 
part of the historian ; did he know enough to write 
a true account, and was he too honest to write 
any other account than such as he believed to be 
true ? These points established, the credibility of 
the history is settled. The first was easily deter- 
mined by the consideration that the amount of 
6.3 



498 LECTURE Xll, 

knowledge required for the writing of the gospel 
history was by no means great ; that the narrative 
is extremely simple and unambitious ; and that 
those who penned it were personal companions of 
Christ, and eyewitnesses of almost all they related. 
In reference to the second point to be made out, 
we took the position that there is abundant evidence 
that the icriters of the gospel history ivere too honest 
to relate any thing but what they believed to be truth. 
Taking the history as written by St. John for a 
specimen, we discovered a strong internal evidence 
of the honesty of the writer in the fact that it is 
in a high degree circumstantial ; and another in the 
incidental characteristic of the writer, that he takes 
no pains to convince us of his honesty, and makes 
no parade about it, as if it were possible to be sus- 
pected ; and another, in the circumstance, that 
while he could not have been ignorant that he was 
relating many extraordinary and wonderful events, 
he betrays no appearance of wonder in himself, 
nor any expectation of wonder from his readers, 
thus evincing that he was conscious of narrating 
events of universal notoriety. In addition to these 
striking imprints of honesty ; we perceived another, 
in the minute accuracy which distinguishes all the 
allusions of this narrative to the manners, customs, 
opinions, political events, and circumstances of the 
times. 

Having thus exhibited satisfactory evidence of 
the honesty of one of the writers of the gospel 
narrative ; we produced seven other writers, each 



LECTURE XII. 499 

entirely independent of the rest, and possessing all 
the internal marks of honesty discovered in St. 
John ; all concurring in their statements so en- 
tirely that no contradiction can be detected ; and 
yet with so much incidental variety, that the sus- 
picion of a concerted scheme for mutual support is 
as unreasonable as if they had lived in different 
centuries. The fact that they were heartily inte- 
rested in the gospel ; that they so firmly believed 
what they wrote, as to have lived in zealous devo- 
tion to Christ, to the sacrifice of life, was shown to 
be the strongest confirmation, instead of the least 
abridgement, of their united testimony. In their 
co-operating evidence, we have a proof of the ho- 
nesty of each writer, and of the credibility of the 
whole body of facts contained in their pages, such 
as no history of any individual of the world can 
equal. Four histories written by persons contem- 
poraneous with the subject, are only found in the 
case before us. When it is considered that the 
authors were not only contemporaries but compa- 
nions of the personage whose history is given ; their 
mutual support and internal evidences of honesty 
afford a body of proof wiiich, were their narratives 
untrue, would be morally impossible. 

Here, we might have left the question of credi- 
bility. But we proceeded to show, that to suppose 
these writers to have published what they did not 
believe, is to suppose that they acted not only 
without any conceivable motive, but in direct op- 
position to all the motives by which the minds of 



500 LECTURE XII. 

men are ever influenced. And finally, it was made 
to appear that the gospel history has in its sup- 
port, not only all the testimony that could fairly 
have been expected from its enemies, all of them 
yielding at least the evidence of silence^ when, had 
they been able, they would assuredly have pubr 
lished a denial ; but much stronger testimony than 
could fairly have been expected from enemies, 
since several of their most hostile writers posir 
tively acknowledge all the facts that are necessary 
to establish the divine authority of Jesus. But 
tliis was not our highest reach of testimony. We 
found a great cloud of witnesses to the truth of 
this history in the multitudes converted to the gos- 
pel under the preaching of the apostles : witnesses 
who have this peculiar excellence, that, from har 
ving once been enemies, they became devoted 
friends, by the mere force of their comdction of the 
facts in question. The whole argument for credi- 
bility was finished by showing, from the very na? 
ture and circumstances of the history, that had it 
not been true, its currency for a single year would 
have been quite as miraculous, and more unac- 
countable, than any thing related therein. 

Having thus cleared our way to the New Testa- 
ment, by ascertaining the authenticity of its books, 
and the credibility of its history; we were prepared 
to open the volume, and investigate its contents. 
It professes to contain a revelation from God, com- 
municated to mankind by the Lord Jesus and 
jiis apostles, as invested with a divine commision 



LECTURE XII. 501 

for this very purpose. We asked for their creden- 
tials. They referred us to their miraculous works. 
The appeal was confessedly fair. Miracles perfectly 
proved, are perfect evidence of divine attestation. 
But, before proceeding to a direct investigation of 
the testimony in favour of the miracles of the 
gospel, we found it necessary, on account of the 
desperate efforts which enemies of Christianity 
have made to escape this argument, to illustrate 
the following preliminary truths : that there is no- 
thing unreasonable or improbable in the idea of a 
miracle in proof of divine revelation ; that the mi- 
racles wrought for this purpose, in the first century, 
can be rendered credible to us of the nineteenth, by 
no other evidence than that of testimony ; that 
such evidence is perfectly sufficient to prove a mi- 
racle ; that the testimony to the gospel miracles 
has suffered no diminution of force by increase of 
age ; and that we, who are restricted to such 
means of conviction, are more favourably situated 
in examining the evidences of Christianity, than if 
we had been present when the miracles were 
wrought, and could have proved their reality by 
the test of our senses. 

From these important propositions, we proceeded 
to the testimony in regard to the miracles of the 
GOSPEL. Here we might have stood upon the just 
claim that, in having established the truth of the 
narratives, we had proved also the miracles, of the 
New Testament ; inasmuch as miraculous events 
are so essentially interwoven with many of them. 



502 LECTURE XIL 

that to question the miracle is necessarily a ques- 
tioning of the narrative. But as our object was 
not merely proof, but variety and fulness of proof, 
we proceeded to the fact that, the religion of the 
Bible having been established by direct appeal to 
miracle, in evidence of the divine authority of its 
teachers, stands alone in this respect among the 
various religions of mankind ; after which, we laid 
out the materials of our argument under the fol- 
lowing propositions. Supposing the wonderful 
works ascribed to our Lord to have really occur- 
red, they cannot be ascribed to second causes, but 
must have been genuine miracles. They were of 
such a nature as admitted of their being brought 
at once to the test of the senses. They were per- 
formed, for the most part, in the most public man- 
ner. They were exceedingly numerous, and of 
great variety. The success, in every case, was in- 
stantaneous and complete. There is no evidence 
of such a thing, as an attempt on the part of Christ 
or his apostles to perform a miracle in which they 
were accused of a failure. For seventy years, the 
miraculous gifts in question continued to be exer- 
cised, and to be submitted to the inspection of 
mankind. During all this time, it is a matter of 
certainty that they underwent the most rigid exa- 
mination from those who had every opportunity 
and every disposition to detect imposition. Every 
advantage was afforded the adversary by their 
being published and appealed to immediately after, 
and in the very places where, they occurred. The 



LECTURE Xil, 503 

persons who performed them were of all others 
the least qualified, and the least likely either to 
attempt a series of counterfeit miracles, or to suc- 
ceed in passing them upon the Jewish and heathen 
world. Notwithstanding all that was done to 
break the constancy and extort the confessions of 
those early Christians who were eyewitnesses of 
the deeds of Jesus and his apostles ; none were ever 
known to acknowledge they had been deceived, or 
had found any thing but truth in the miracles by 
which they were led to embrace the gospel. The 
benevolent character and holy effects of the mira- 
cles ; the humble, self denying, unambitious spirit 
of those who performed them, are irreconcilable 
with the supposition of any thing selfish or deceit- 
ful. That they were genuine, and to the people of 
that century undeniable, we have the plainest and 
strongest confession from the primitive adversaries 
of Christ and his cause. But confessions stronger, 
unspeakably, are found in the history of great mul- 
titudes in Judea, and every country of heathenism, 
who beheld in them such incontrovertible certainty 
as induced them to lay aside the bitterest enmity 
to the gospel, and make the most painful sacrifices 
of which human nature is capable, for the sake of 
embracing the service of Jesus. If with all this 
evidence, there is not reason to rely implicitly upon 
the reality of the gospel miracles, we are driven to 
believe in the most unaccountable violations of the 
laws of nature, of truth, and of common sense, as 
necessary to account for the singular events con- 



504 Lecture xn. 

necled with their performance, and for their uni- 
versal acknowledgment in the era of their first 
publication. Hence it was concluded that the 
credentials of Jesus and his apostles were given 
from heaven; and, consequently, that the New 
Testament, as an authentic record of what they 
delivered, is the hook of the revelation of God, 

Here, with perfect safety, might the cause have 
been considered as determined. But, unwilling to 
content ourselves with once establishing the divine 
authority of the gospel, the argument was com- 
menced anew, substituting prophecy for miracle, 
as the source of evidence. Considerations were 
stated which render the argument from prophecy 
specially valuable : such as the continual increase 
of its strength, and the important characteristic of 
many predictions, that their fulfilment, being a 
matter of present existence, is evidence before our 
eyes — addressed to our senses. Before proceeding 
to the proof of fulfilment, the fact that all other 
religions have shrunk from attempting such dan- 
gerous ground as the publication of prophecy, and 
yet that, however certain of exposure in case of 
imposition, it is every where appealed to, and 
rested upon, in the Bible, was treated as a strong 
presumptive argument that in the Bible is found 
— what no false religion can possess — something to 
warrant it in venturing where divine omniscience 
alone is able to tre3id— inspiration of God. We 
then glanced at the immense extent, and vast em- 
brace, and wonderful minuteness, which charac- 



LECTURE XII. 505 

terize the scheme of scripture prophecy ; the many- 
ages included ; the variety of agents employed ; 
the numerous particulars predicted ; and the har- 
mony of all the details. The undeniable fact was 
asserted, that between the least prediction of the 
Bible, and any event of history, there is not the 
smallest evidence of contradiction. We then de- 
manded whether it were credible that imposture 
would ever have dared to commit its cause to 
a venture which could terminate successfully only 
by such a hopeless series of miraculous coinci- 
dences. 

With all this presumptive evidence on our side, 
we took up a brief selection of important prophe- 
cies, and showed their minute and wonderful ful- 
filment, from sources of testimony to which there 
could be no exception. Your attention was spe- 
cially directed to a great variety of predictions, by 
different writers, and in all ages of bible history, 
all centering in Jesus, and determining the time 
and circumstances of his advent ; the character of 
his life ; the particulars of his sufferings and death ; 
foretelling his resurrection, and the increase of his 
kingdom. After having thus showed the fulfil- 
ment of prophecies, of which Jesus was the sub- 
ject, we proceeded to others, of which Jesus was 
the author. 

In the destruction of Jerusalem, and its subse- 
quent history ; we had, prepared to our hands in 
the writings of unbelievers, a most impressive ac- 
complishment of a series of predictions on the part 
64 



506 LECTURE XII. 

of our Lord, in which the utmost plainness of 
meaning is united with singular minuteness of de- 
tail. The agreement between the predictions and 
the events admitted of no denial. The supposition 
of chance was the only explanation to which un- 
belief could flee. But it was stated, on the autho- 
rity of strict arithmetical calculation, that, accord- 
ing to the principles employed in the computation 
of what are called chances, the probability against 
the occurrence, at the predicted time, of all the 
particulars embraced in the prophecies of which 
we had spoken, exceeded the powder of numbers to 
express ; even without the consideration of the pro- 
vidence of One who hateth iniquity, and especially 
when it is practised under pretence of his autho- 
rity. The conclusion was inevitable : that the 
Bible, in thus containing so many genuine prophe- 
cies, scattered through its several books, contains 
revelation from God, and exhibits satisfactory evi- 
dences of divine authority ; and that Jesus Christ, 
being in his character and ofiice, as the Saviour of 
sinners, the great theme of this system of prophecy, 
and being himself endued with the spirit of pro- 
phecy, was, and is to come, no other than what he 
claimed to be considered, the Son of God, the Re- 
deemer of men. King of kings, and Lord of lords. 

Here again, we might have rested our cause. 
But unwilling to withhold the interesting evidence 
remaining; we commenced the main question anew, 
and set out to prove the divine original, from the 
history of the propagation of Christianity. The 



LECTURE XII. 507 

difficulties in the way of its extensive progress 
were manifest from considering that the enterprise 
of propagating a new religion, to the exclusion of 
every other, was perfectly novel, and universally 
offensive ; that the whole character of the gospel, 
as a system of doctrine and a rule of life, erected 
a barrier against its progress which, to human 
force, would have proved insurmountable ; that it 
necessarily arrayed against itself all the influence 
of every priesthood ; all the powers of every go- 
vernment; all the prejudices, habits, and passions 
of every people ; and all the pride, wit, and in- 
fluence of every school of philosophy in the world. 
Add to this, that the character of the age was pe- 
culiarly adapted to increase the difficulties above 
mentioned, and to put the truth of such a religion 
as that of the gospel to the very closest and 
strongest trial. The agents entrusted with the 
propagation of Christianity were of all others most 
unfitted for their work, on the supposition that it 
was one of imposture. They set up their banner 
when every thing visible on their side only tended 
to inspire them with despair, and every thing on 
the side of their enemies was considered as trium- 
phant. The mode they adopted was directly cal- 
culated, on human principles, to increase and mul- 
tiply all their difficulties. They were encountered 
every where by the fiercest persecution that the 
malignant ingenuity of enemies could invent, and 
the principalities and powers of the earth could 
execute. In spite of all these enormous combina- 



508 



LECTURE XIL 



tions of resistance ; such was the rapid and mighty 
progress of the gospel, that, in thirty years, the 
Roman empire was every where pervaded with its 
influence, and even haughty Rome could yield a 
great multitude, as her first fruits for the fires of 
persecution. The conversions, which ensued in 
such numbers, were not changes merely of opinion, 
but of heart and life ; they involved individuals of 
all classes of mind, of learning, of rank, and of 
opulence. Nothing in any degree corresponding to 
this work had ever been known before, or has ever 
been witnessed since ; even though efforts have fre- 
quently been made, in circumstances and with 
means, on the supposition that the apostles were 
not specially favoured of God, much more advan- 
tageous than theirs. All these particulars com- 
bined, demonstrate that in the labours of the apos- 
tles, none but " God gave the increase,^^ because 
none but God could give such increase. They 
present a miracle as unquestionable, as if a rock 
should open at the bidding of a man, and become a 
fountain of water. 

Thus, a third time, did we finish our proof. 
Here, again, might the argument have been safely 
terminated. But the fruits of Christianity pre- 
sented a source of additional evidence, too impor- 
tant to be omitted. We began in this department 
with the effects of Christianity 07i society in general. 
We surveyed the moral condition of mankind when 
the gospel era commenced. The most polished, 
literary, and admired nations of the ancient world 



LECTURE XII. 509 

were selected as, at least, favourable specimens of 
all the others. Their personal, domestic, and so- 
cial virtues were placed in comparison with those 
of civilized nations of the present age, and espe- 
cially with those which christian influence has most 
thoroughly pervaded. The contrast was exceed- 
ingly impressive. The moral improvements ef- 
fected in society have been immense and inestima- 
ble. We found nothing in the philosophy, or the 
religion, or the fluctuations, or any other ingredient 
of the heathen or infidel world, to eflfect such a 
change. No heathen nation, left to itself, has ever 
reformed. The history of the world demonstrates 
that the whole w^ork must be charged to Chris- 
tianity. The history of christian eflfort, among hea- 
then nations of the present age, demonstrates that 
she was capable, and ever will be capable, of ac- 
complishing such blessed results. 

From the fruits of Christianity on society in ge- 
neral, we turned to those exhibited in the character 
and happiness of her getiuine disciples. Undenia- 
ble and innumerable transformations in moral cha- 
racter and habits were pointed out, which are ut- 
terly incapable of explanation, but on the suppo- 
sition of a divine power accompanying the gospel. 
A comparison was drawn between the lives of 
genuine disciples of Christ, and those for which 
unbelievers are notorious. Another was instituted 
between the death-bed scenes and testimonies of 
real Christians, and such as have been witnessed 
in connexion with infidelity. It appeared that, 



510 LECTURE XII. 

with a few exceptions, individuals are the slaves 
of sin, in proportion as they become devoted to in- 
fidelity ; while it was equally evident that, without 
any exception, they become servants of righteous- 
ness, in proportion as their hearts are surrendered 
to the influence of the gospel. It appeared that 
while, on the one hand, no unbeliever ever ad- 
vanced beyond the negative and comfortless com- 
posure of a Stoic, under the trial of death, and 
multitudes, and the very chief of their profession, 
have, in that hour, abandoned their sentiments 
with horror; it was never heard, on the other 
hand, that a Christian regretted, in his death, hav- 
ing believed and obeyed the gospel ; while innu- 
merable disciples of that blessed faith have risen, 
in the very act of dissolution, to the most trium- 
phant assurance of eternal life and glory. Such 
are the legitimate fruits of the gospel of Christ. 

On the wise principle, therefore, that "a cor- 
rupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," we must 
pronounce Christianity good ; and since no religion 
can be good without being true, or as Hume ex- 
pressed it : " error never can jiroduce good" we 
must conclude that her assertion of divine autho- 
rity is worthy of all acceptation. Thus terminated, 
the argument of the last lecture. 

And now, while the retrospect, we have been 
taking, is fresh in your memories, consider : 

1st. The plainness and simplicity which charac- 
terize the evidences of Christianity. To under- 
stand the meaning, and appreciate the force, of 



LECTURE XII. 511 

any or all of them, so far as is necessary to a clear, 
intelligent, and impressive conviction of the divine 
inspiration of the scriptures, and the divine nature 
and mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a work to 
which the mind of any thoughtful serious indi- 
vidual of ordinary information is competent. Will- 
ingness to read, readiness to learn, humility to sub- 
mit to conviction, and ordinary knowledge of the 
meaning of words, are the only requisites for a sa- 
tisfactory investigation of the whole argument. 
How different, in this respect, is the system of 
Christ, from all the speculating and metaphysical 
systems of infidel philosophy! What would a 
plain common sense people do, did their under- 
standing of the grounds of faith and duty depend 
upon such dark questions, as the sufficiency of the 
light of nature, the origin of evil, the metaphysical 
relations of cause and effect, the foundation of vir- 
tue, the elements of accountability, the freedom of 
the will, &c. ; questions which must be settled in 
our own minds, and by our own reason, before we 
can consistently embrace any other religion than 
that of revelation ; but about which all the philoso- 
phy on earth, if it reject the scriptures, may specu- 
late to the end of time, without arriving at sufficient 
certainty to satisfy a single conscience. The gospel 
requires no abstract theories to explain its way of 
salvation, its principles of obligation, or its rule of 
duty. It simply presents the evidence that Jesus 
Christ, the Son and the Sent of God, came into the 
world to teach and to save sinners ; and then, for 



512 LECTURE XII. 

every sinner, puMishes this plain direction : What 
Jesus in his word has taught, believe ; what he has 
there commanded, folloic ; and, through his right- 
eousness, thou shalt be salved. 

2d. Consider the great variety and accumulation 
of the evidences of Christianity. In the lectures to 
w^hich you have listened, were presented no less 
than four independent and complete methods of 
proof, each of which is amply sufficient to bear the 
whole weight of the gospel. The argument from 
miracles is conclusive without the argument from 
prophecy. The latter is in no wise dependent upon 
the former, or any that succeeded it. The argu- 
ment from the propagation is complete in itself, as 
well as that from the fruits of Christianity. But 
under each of these general heads, what a bound- 
less variety of auxiliary evidences might have 
been adduced ! Every single miracle ; every ful- 
filled prophecy ; a thousand separate facts in the 
spread of the gospel, and innumerable examples of 
its holy fruits in the hearts and lives of believers, 
would have furnished us with so many effulgent 
centres, from all of which rays of brilliant evidence 
are continually meeting and harmonizing in a 
shining testimony to Jesus, as the resurrection and 
the life. 

But remember that one whole division, out of the 
two which embrace the field of evidence, has been 
left untouched. We have found an astonishing 
variety and accumulation of proof; and yet the 
whole department of internal evidence, that 



LECTURE XII. 513 

which arises from the search of the New Testa- 
ment itself — its spirit, mamaer, dress, and beauty — 
the simplicity of its character ; the benevolence of 
its temper; its power over the conscience; the 
suitableness of its contents to the wants of man ; 
the excellence of its doctrines ; the purity and ele- 
vation of its morals ; the character and conduct of 
Jesus, and the happy tendency of all his instruc- 
tions ; this immense field of diversified evidence, se- 
condary to none in its influence upon the mind, and 
superior to all in its direct appeal to the heart, we 
have not so much as entered. Could we but see 
all the separate streams united in one ; could we 
measure at once the force of that majestic tide 
which collects its innumerable tributaries from all 
ages, and all nations, and all hearts ; could we ap- 
preciate its strength by an accurate estimate of all 
the obstructions with which earth and hell, '' the 
prince of the power of the air," and " the rulers of 
the darkness of this world," have endeavoured to 
resist its course — the mountains of difiiculty which, 
in every century, it has rent asunder, or rolled 
away to clear its course ; we should wonder, in- 
deed, at what Divine Goodness has done to make 
us believers, and at what human obduracy has 
been able to withstand for the purpose of continu* 
ing in unbelief. 

But this astonishing flood of evidence is per- 
petually increasing. Every additional benefit 
which Christianity bestows upon any portion of 
mankind ; every additional conversion of a sinner 
65 



514 



LECTURE XII. 



to God ; every holy life tliat is added to the shining 
ranks of the followers of Christ; every new 
triumph of christian faith over the trials of life and 
the terrors of death ; every increase in the fulfil- 
ment of prophecy ; every advance in the conquest 
of the gospel over the darkness of paganism ; every 
new year of victory over all the resistance of pre- 
tended friends and unfaithful professors, and inter- 
nal divisions, and infidel enmity, is a new stream 
to swell the many waters, which one day, like the 
deluge of old, will drown unbelief in its last re- 
fuge, and make all nations and kindreds know how 
precious, as an ark of safety, is He who " came 
into the world to save sinners." 

But who can ask for additional evidence ? Did 
not the question affect the darling idols of the 
heart; were it one of property, or of science, 
or of human life ; were it some new medicine, to 
heal the maladies of the body, that laid before us 
this immense mass of credentials from all genera- 
tions ; or were it a scheme for the acquisition of 
earthly gain that came to us accompanied with 
such voluminous evidence of its unfailing truth and 
wisdom ; no man of common sense could hesitate 
a moment to give it his unqualified belief. All 
men are continually committing their dearest inter- 
ests to evidence unspeakably inferior. We intrust 
our lives to the care of physicians, of whose skill, 
and wisdom, and carefulness, and honesty, we have 
no assurance comparable to our proof of Jesus, as 
the only Physician to save our souls, and as that 



LECTURE XII. 515 

all-snfficient One, in whose hands none can perish. 
We believe, without a question, in all the great 
events of history ; and yet their evidence is so in- 
considerable in comparison with that of the gos- 
pel, that if you take away, as unestablished, the 
great pillars of the argument of Christianity, you 
pronounce the whole foundation of historical 
knowledge, unestablished ; yea, you rob mankind 
of the whole fruit of human testimony, and write 
terra incognita over almost the whole map of the 
generations and things of the universe. 

III. How impressive to the mind of every human 
beings should the evidences of Christianity apj^ear. 
If he take up any system of faith which men 
have ever attempted to substitute for the gospel, 
and compare its evidences, how immediately is it 
confounded by the contrast. If he attempt to set 
aside any one of the key-stones on which the noble 
fabric of Christianity is supported, how immediately 
are his efforts defeated, and his weapons broken ! 
He may invent difficulties, but the arguments of the 
gospel he cannot answer. What, then, is the con- 
dition of the inquirer'? The religion of Christ, 
thus solemnly and impressively attested, declares 
him a sinner before a just and holy God; con- 
demned, under sentence of the divine law, to eter- 
nal retribution and wo. It tells him, that except 
lie repent, he must perish ; except he believe in and 
follow Jesus, as his Master and only Hope, he can- 
not be delivered from condemnation. It declares, 
on the other hand, that if he repent and believe on 



516 



LECTURE XII. 



the Lord Jesus Christj he shall be saved ; the sting 
of death will be taken away ; an inheritance will 
be given him '' that is incorruptible, and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away." All this comes to him 
under the sanction of evidences innumerable ; for 
none of wiiich is he provided w^ith an answer. 
History informs him that the best and wisest men 
of all ages have considered those evidences incon- 
trovertible. Immense multitudes assure him, that 
in embracing the gospel they have experienced the 
truth of its promises, and realized the holy and 
happy influence of its doctrines. The probability, 
to say the very least, must seem immense, even to 
a sceptic, that should he reject Christianity, he 
would reject the truth of God, and incur eternal 
ruin. While the certainty is evident, that should 
he embrace it, not only would he suffer no loss in 
case it should prove untrue, but he would gain 
many precious consolations in this life, of which 
infidelity is entirely barren. In these circum- 
stances, how serious is the crisis, when he is 
making the choice whether to be an infidel or a 
christian ! Does he decide for infidelity ? He can 
gain nothing ; he certainly loses much ; and if the 
gospel be true, he loses all forever. Does he de- 
cide for Christianity? He can lose nothing; he 
certainly gains a great deal ; and if infidelity prove 
to be true, he has nothing to regret but that truth 
and happiness should be so directly at war. 

Then what a step does he take, who, notwith- 
standing all the evidences of the religion of Jesus, 



LECTURE XII. 517 

determines upon its denial? What solemnity and 
carefulness of investigation ; what candour and im- 
partiality of judgment ; what jealously over one's 
own inclinations and prejudices; what long and 
patient consideration ; what earnest prayer for di- 
vine guidance and help, should precede such a de- 
cision ! One would suppose that at least the ma- 
turest knowledge, and the coolest temperament, 
and the most sober hours, would he waited for, he- 
fore coming to a point on which such tremendous 
consequences are suspended. What, then, is our 
amazement to see the stupid ignorance, or the 
senseless levity, or the lazy thoughtlessness, or the 
intemperate enmity, with which this momentous 
decision is almost always made ! How many be- 
come infidels, not only without candid investiga- 
tion, but without any serious thinking ; without so 
much as an inquiry ; without even a decent sobriety 
of mind. To such persons, I know not a more 
alarming occupation than that of reading a well- 
ordered exhibition of the evidences of Christianity. 
Have the evidences of the christian religion been 
ever answered? Infidels have attacked Chris- 
tianity. But any thing may be attacked. They 
have slandered her doctrines ; ridiculed her word ; 
reviled her precepts ; hated her holiness, and in- 
fluenced many to go and do likewise : but neither 
hatred, nor reviling, nor ridicule, nor slander, is the 
test of truth. Have infidels ever resorted to the 
one only fair and honest mode of meeting, face to 
face, the whole array of testimony which chris- 



518 LECTURE XII. 

tiaiiity advances, and endeavouring coolly to prove 
as a matter of historical evidence, that the authen- 
ticity of the New Testament, and the credibility of 
its history, are not sustained ; that the miracles of 
Jesus have not been supported with adequate tes- 
timony ; that the prophecies of the scriptures have 
met their attestation in no accurate histories ; that 
Christianity was propagated by human force alone, 
and its fruits are those of a corrupt and deceitful 
tree ? I answer, no. There is no such effort in 
the books of infidelity. I read of speculations, op- 
posed to our facts ; insinuations, in answer to our 
testimonies ; sneers, in reply to our solemn reason- 
ings ; assertions, where we demanded arguments ; 
levity and presumption, where an advocate of truth 
would have been serious and humble. But I know 
of no such thing, as a book of infidelity in any 
sense corresponding in the nature, or grounds, or 
spirit of its reasoning, with such arguments for 
Christianity as those of Paley, or Lardner, or Gre- 
gory, or Wilson, and a thousand others, to which 
no man ever dared to attempt an answer. Infi- 
delity, like an insect on the pillar of some stupen- 
dous temple, that can see no further than the mi- 
croscopic irregularities of the polished marble be- 
neath its feet, may busy itself in hunting for little 
specks in the surface of the noble fabric of Chris- 
tianity ; but has no such eye, and takes no such 
elevated stand, as would enable it to survey the 
w^hole plan, and judge of its pretensions by the 



LECTURE XIl. 519 

mutual adaptation of its parts, tiie harmony and 
grandeur of its proportions. 

IV. But there is a most important feature in all 
the evidence we have been considering, to which I 
now direct your special attention. It is strictly 
PHILOSOPHICAL. By this I mean that the process 
by which we have arrived at the truth of Chris- 
tianity is precisely similar to that by which the 
astronomer arrives at the most certain truths of the 
celestial bodies ; or the chemist determines the 
most fundamental doctrines of his important 
science. The grand characteristic of the philoso- 
phy that Bacon illustrated, and Newton so nobly 
applied, and to which all science is so deeply in- 
debted, is that it discards speculation ; places no 
dependence upon theory ; demands fact for every 
thing, and in every thing submits implicitly to the 
decision of fact, no matter how incomprehensible, 
or how opposed by all the speculations of the 
world. This is called inductive philosophy, in dis- 
tinction from that of theory and conjecture. It 
collects its facts either by personal experiments 
and observation; or by the testimony of those whose 
experiments and observations, and whose fidelity 
in recording them, are worthy of reliance. From 
these it makes its careful inductions, and deter- 
mines the laws of science, with a degree of plain, 
unpresuming authority, to which every enlightened 
mind feels it ought to bow. The great principle 
of all Newton's Principia, and that on which he 
set the ladder that raised him to the stars, was this 



520 



LECTURE XII. 



simple axiom : " Whatever is collected from this 
induction ought to be received, notwithstanding 
any conjectural hypothesis to the contrary, till 
such time as it shall be contradicted or limited by 
further observations." But why is not this self 
evident truth as fundamental in religion, as in as- 
tronomy ? If Reid and Stewart have been per- 
mitted, with universal consent and approbation, to 
apply the simple principles of induction to the phi- 
losophy of the mind ; on what possible ground can 
they be excluded from the philosophy of the soul 
— the religion of the heart 7 We beg as a favour, 
what is also demanded by right, that Christianity 
may be tried by the strictest application of these 
principles. You are called upon for no greater 
effort of credulity ; no more implicit reliance on 
testimony, in order to receive the whole system of 
Christianity, as a divine revelation, than you are 
obliged daily to exercise in believing those innu- 
merable facts in natural science, which you have 
not the opportunity of testing by your own experi- 
ments. In regard to these, you simply ask, what 
is the statement 1 Is it accurate '? Is it honest 1 
However it may contradict your previous ideas, or 
seem at variance with previous phenomena, or even 
with well established laws, you only investigate 
the testimony with the more carefulness. This 
confirmed, you receive the facts; and, instead of 
squaring them by any of your old theories or specu- 
lations, you proceed to measure the latter by their 
line, with as much submission as if every mystery 



LECTURE XII. 521 

involved in them were perfectly explained. Only 
behave thus reasonably in the investigation of the 
great question we have been considering. Apply 
to it the measuring rod of sound philosophy. Let 
every speculation as to its truth be blotted out. 
Let all conjectural hypothesis, for and against it, 
be set aside. Let the infidel and the Christian sit 
together in the chairs of Bacon and of Newton; 
and with all that stern rejection of mere theory, 
and that lowly deference to fact, which so eminently 
distinguished those venerable patriarchs of modern 
science, let the New Testament be brought to the 
bar. It professes to be the authentic and credible 
record of the life and doctrine of Christ. In it, he 
professes to have been sent of God. Let the ques- 
tion be put. Not, however, is this religion con- 
sistent with our notions of what man wanted, and 
God might have been expected to reveal ? Not, 
does it contain any thing strange, or mysterious, or 
apparently contradictory to what we have been 
accustomed to believe ? But let it be a plain ques- 
tion of inductive philosophy. Is it supported by a 
competent number of well certified facts 1 Is there 
so much credible testimony that we are warranted 
in determining that the New Testament is authen- 
tic ; that its history is true ; that Jesus did work 
miracles ; that his prophecies have been fulfilled 7 
that no human power, unaided by that of God, 
can account for the propagation of his gospel ; that 
no corrupt imposture could ever produce the fruit 
with which its influence has blessed mankind ? If 
66 



522 LECTURE XII, 

there be, then all true philosophy says : " Chris- 
tianity ought to he believed, notwithstanding any 
conjectural hypothesis to the contrary. ^^ Only con- 
fine yourselves to this mode of investigation, and 
submit yourselves to this simple law of evidence, 
and, like Newton, you may mount a ladder set on 
a rock, and reaching to the right hand of the throne 
of God. Proceed on any other principle, and, like 
the heavenly vortexes and the immense currents of 
ethereal matter in the philosophy of Des Cartes, it 
can only lead you into inextricable confusion. But, 
if you adopt the true principles, what becomes of 
the writings of infidels ? Buried amidst the rubbish 
of vain speculations, and ingenious absurdities, and 
scholastic trifling, of the dark ages, when to get 
wealth by the hypothesis of a philosopher's stone, 
instead of the homely, experimental realities of 
diligence and common sense, was the great effort 
of scientific ambition ! Infidelity is all speculation. 
Reduce it to a residuum of inductive reasoning, 
and you bring it to nothingness. Strip it of its 
several envelopes of ingenious hypothesis, and bold 
assertion, and scofiing declamation, and you find 
nothing left but a man of straw — an ugly shape to 
keep the hungry from the bread of life, which you 
need only approach to discover that it is made of 
rags, and stuffed with rottenness. 

The argument for the divine authority of the 
gospel is all composed of statements of undeniable 
facts, and of direct inferences legitimately drawn 
from them. I defy the ingenuity of the keenest 



LECTUER XIT. 523 

critic to take up the course of reasoning to which 
you have listened, and point out a single theory, or 
speculation — any thing, depended on for proof, but 
plain statements of facts, established as perfectly, 
and bearing as directly upon the point in question, 
as any of the observations of Newton's telescope, or 
of Davy's crucible. Not a word have we said as 
to what might be supposed or conjectured ; wiiat 
is likely or unlikely ; what might have been ex- 
pected or the contrary ; but have simply inquired, 
ichat is historically true. Let our opponents do 
likewise. Whether any thing in Christianity ap- 
pears to them probable or improbable ; consistent 
or inconsistent ; agreeable to what they should 
have expected, or the contrary ; wise and good, or 
ridiculous and useless ; is perfectly irrelevant. 
We can by no means consent to make their judg- 
ments the standard in such matters. Infidels are 
thought to entertain very absurd and inconsistent 
ideas of absurdity and inconsistency, and of what 
should be esteemed as both good and wise. We 
ask them to descend from their flights of fancy and 
speculation, and condescend, in matters of reli- 
gion, to do what, in those of science, public opinion 
would force them to, or laugh them out of counte- 
nance ; to sit down to the plain investigation, on 
principles of common evidence, of the facts which 
support Christianity, determined to believe what 
may be collected therefrom, notwithstanding any 
of their conjectural hypotheses to the contrary. 
Such was once the honest demand of astronomy 



524 LECTUEE XII. 

and chemistry upon all the tribes of theorists 
and conjecturalists, in those departments of 
science. It is but a short time since our present 
fundamental doctrines, on those subjects, were op- 
posed by philosophers whose speculations they 
rooted up, precisely as the great doctrines of the 
gospel are still opposed by infidels whose lives they 
condemn. By and by, it became irresistibly evi- 
dent that there is no way to science but by the 
slow and humble path of experiment, obtained 
either by personal observation, or by the credible 
testimony of others. As soon as men of scientific 
minds shall learn to be consistent with their own 
principles, and to reason philosophically, as well 
when a law of religion, as a law of nature is con- 
cerned ; then the contradiction will no longer ap- 
pear of one loving to investigate the works of God, 
but rejecting His word.* 

In truth, the evidence of Christianity rests upon 
a basis which cannot be condemned, without the 
downfall of many of the most important works of 
science. The main facts and reasonings of che- 
mistry are considered undeniable, because experi- 
mental. But who feels it necessary to make all 
the experiments, or to see them made, before he will 
believe ? Many of the most important, he receives, 
and must receive, upon the testimony of others. 

* On the application of the inductive philosophy to the evi- 
dences of christianit}', see chapters viii. and ix. of Chalmer's Evi- 
dences. 



LECTURE XIL 525 

Thus it is also in astronomical calculations. Sel- 
dom are the facts obtained from our own observa- 
tions. Many of them, we believe, because they are 
reported by credible witnesses. We come to a 
certain result, by means of a number taken from a 
table of calculations made to our hands, with as 
much assurance, and base our reasonings upon it 
as confidently, as if we had obtained all the ele- 
ments by our own labour ; and yet the very corner 
stone of our computation is a mere matter of testi- 
mony. On such reliance are eclipses predicted, 
and nautical observations founded ; and yet a man 
of science who should evince any scepticism with 
regard to events thus ascertained, would render 
himself no less an object of ridicule than if he 
should cavil about the sun's rising to-morrow. 
What is a page of logarithms, but a page of asser- 
tions, the whole value of which is the faith of tes- 
timony ; and yet upon such data the most momen- 
tous calculations in the exact sciences are based 
without a question. 

Pure mathematics are considered as involving 
complete demonstrations. Mathematical reasoning 
is regarded as the very perfection of certainty. 
And yet, in many of its most important operations, 
elements, on which the whole chain depends, are 
assumed on a basis not a particle more sure, to 
say the least, than that on which our belief of the 
christian miracles is founded. " Who would scru- 
ple, in a geometrical investigation, to adopt as a 
link in the chain a theorem of Apollonius or of 



526 LECTURE XIIo 

ArcliimedeSj although he might not have leisure at 
the moment to satisfy himself, by an actual exa- 
mination of their demonstrations, that they had 
been guilty of no paralogism, either of accident or 
design, in the course of their reasonings ?"* And 
yet a result, however important, arising from such 
an investigation, none would suspect. A philoso- 
pher would rest his life upon its certainty. But have 
we assurance of the accuracy and honesty of such 
men, to whose testimony we thus implicitly yield, 
whether they be mathematicians, or chemists, or 
astronomers, comparable in any degree to our as- 
surance of the competent knowledge and immovea- 
ble honesty of those original witnesses of the works 
of Jesus who have borne such devoted testimony 
to his miracles ? Did Apollonius, or Archimedes, 
or any philosophers of later times, seal their ho- 
nesty with their blood 1 Did they suffer the loss 
of all things in maintenance of their doctrines? 
Were they willing to be accounted as fools for 
the sake of their testimony 7 Did Galileo brave 
the torture of the inquisition sooner than deny his 
astronomical discoveries 1 We do not require such 
extreme evidence of integrity even in the greatest 
questions of scientific testimony. It were folly to 
expect it. We are satisfied with a far inferior de- 
gree of assurance. And yet such, in ten thousands 
of instances, is the evidence by which we know the 
honesty of those from whom comes our testimony 

* Stewart's Philosophy, ii. 178. 



LECTURE Xil. 527 

to the great facts of the gospel history. They did 
suffer the loss of all things ; they did endure to be 
treated as the offscouring of all things ; they did 
give themselves to the rack, and flame, and wild 
beasts, for the testimony of Jesus. 

I mentioned, in the announcement of this lecture, 
that besides a summary of the whole previous 
course, it would contain an application of the ar- 
gument to the principal objections brought forward 
by infidels. This, in substance, has been exhi- 
bited. We know of no objection of any impor- 
tance which is not put to silence and buried, by an 
appeal from what men think to what men have 
done ; from sjjeculation to testimony ; from the ideas 
of objectors to the facts of witnesses. The simple 
application of the great principle of inductive phi- 
losophy, that ivhatever is collected by observation 
ought to be received, any hyjjothesis to the contrary 
notivithstanding, is the smooth white stone in the 
sling of David, which no champion of the Philis- 
tines, however gigantic in intellect, or learning, or 
in the boast of either, can stand. I am now speak- 
ing of the chief objections. I have nothing to do 
with the ignorant ribaldry of such an antagonist as 
Paine. To this man, the purity of the gospel was 
its chief deformity ; and its stern contradiction of 
his disgusting vices, its most irreconcileable incon- 
sistency. He studied the Bible to defame it, and 
scraped the common sewers of infidelity for its very 
lowest and filthiest objections ; and then, w^ithout 
honesty even to advert to the thousand answers 



528 LECTURE XII. 

each had received in its day, served them up with 
his own dressing of strong assertion and acrid ridi- 
cule, and advertised them to the world as his own, 
and as unanswerable. Such matters we must leave 
to the writings of those who have had stomach 
to handle them. In the answer of Bishop Watson 
you may see how entirely boasting is their strength. 
They need but the light, to make all their show of 
argument fade away. Their best answer is found 
in the profligate life and despairing death of the 
poor, miserable man himself 

The mysterious7wss of certain things in Chris- 
tianity is urged as a strong reason for the rejection 
of its divine authority. Many will not believe the 
doctrine of the Trinity ; the divinity of Christ ; his 
incarnation ; his atoning sacrifice ; his resurrection 
from the dead ; his intercession in heaven ; the influ- 
ences of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men, and 
our new creation unto holiness by his converting 
power, not to speak of many other of the deep 
things of God, because they are mysteries. Myste- 
ries they are unquestionably, and were intended 
to be so regarded. So far as we have need to un- 
derstand them, they are as intelligible as the plain 
truth that man is the union of body and spirit. So 
far as we are not concerned to understand them, 
they are as mysterious, but not more so, than the 
nature of the union between body and spirit in man. 
Religion must have myvsteries. " Religion without 
its mysteries is a temple without its God." 



LECTURE XII. 529 

Whither shall we flee to get beyond the region 
of things incomprehensible? They beset us be- 
hind and before. If from revealed religion, we go 
to natural, they are there ! The most essential 
doctrine of all religion, the existence of God, is 
mystery to the uttermost. What explanation can 
be given of his self-existence '? His presence in all 
parts of the universe at once ? How he inhabits 
eternity, having no relation to time — and immen- 
sity, having no relation to space ? If from natural 
religion, we go to atheism, they are there al-so ! He 
who denies the existence of God, plunges at once 
into the most confounding of all mysteries. What 
in scripture is more incomprehensible than that this 
world had no Maker 1 that all its examples of wise 
and deep design had no Designer 1 Will you go 
from thence, to the experimental certainties of na- 
tural philosophy 1 Mysteries are there also ! Ex- 
plain the attraction of gravitation, the nature of 
electricity, the elastic power of steam, the secrets 
of evaporation. What is vegetable, or animal, or 
spiritual life 7 In mechanics, we arrive at the ut- 
most certainty respecting the relations of force, 
matter, time, motion, space ; while, with the things 
themselves, we have not the least acquaintance. 
They are mysteries, as unsearchable to us, as the 
deepest things of revealed religion. How force is 
communicated from one body to another, is no 
more intelligible than how the influences of the 
Holy Spirit are communicated to man. Matter, in 
its changes, is as incomprehensible as grace in its 
67 



530 LECTURE XII. 

operations. '' There are questions, doubts, per- 
plexities, disputes, diversities of opinions, about the 
one as well as about the other. Ought we not, 
therefore, by a parity of reasoning, to conclude 
that there may be several true and highly useful 
propositions about the latter as well as about the 
former? Nay, I will venture to go farther, and 
affirm (says a devoted teacher of science) that the 
preponderance of the argument is in favour of the 
propositions of the theologian. For while force, 
time, motion, &c., are avowedly constituent parts 
of a demonstrable science, and ought therefore to 
be presented in a full blaze of light, the obscure 
parts proposed in the scriptures for our assent are 
avowedly mysterious. They are not exhibited to 
be perfectly understood, but to be believed. They 
cannot be understood without ceasing to be what 
they are. Obscurities, however, are felt as incum- 
brances to any system of philosophy ; while mys- 
teries are ornaments of the christian system, and 
tests of the humility and faith of its votaries. So 
that if the rejectors of incomprehensibilities acted 
consistently with their own principles, they would 
rather throw aside all philosophical theories in 
which obscurities are found and exist as defects^ 
than the system of revealed religion, in which they 
enter as essential parts of that ' mystery of godli- 
ness ' in which the apostles gloried."* 

* CTregory's Letters. 



LECTURE XII. 531 

If from natural philosophy, we ascend to the 
higher hranches of pure mathematics^ the regions 
of unmixed light and certainty, where nought is 
tolerated but strict demonstration, even there 
iDill mystery find us, and its right hand loill 
hold us. 

Explain the demonstrated fact that " there are 
curves which approach continually to some fixed 
right line, without the possibility of ever meeting 
it;" that "a space infinite in one sense may, by its 
rotation, generate a solid of finite capacity ;" that 
" a variable space shall be continually augment- 
ing, and yet never become equal to a certain finite 
quantity." 

These are depths which the mathematician can 
solve no better than Christians can explain the 
great mysteries of redemption. But they do not 
hinder him. He can use, as the elements of his 
calculation, doctrines thus incomprehensible, with- 
out feeling any diminution in the certainty of the 
result. Why may not a Christian, with equal rea- 
son, include among the articles of his belief doc- 
trines no more incomprehensible, without embar- 
rasssing his assurance of the duties and consola- 
tions which result from them ? 

If mysteries be valid objections to tliat which 
speaks of God and his relations to man ; why are 
they not at least as formidable in all those branches 
of human knowledge in which created and finite 
subjects alone are im^olved? But they are not 



532 LECTURE XII. 

treated as objections by the mathematician or the 
philosopher. The former asks no question, but 
simply, what is demonsti^ated ? The latter, what is 
proved, either by experiment or by testimony"^ If 
phenomena be well attested, he does not wait to 
understand their cause, or mode, or effects ; he does 
not suspend belief till he has harmonized their pe- 
culiarities with a favourite hypothesis, or with pre- 
vious observations. He sets them down among 
the truths of science, and believes; taking for 
granted, that though he may not understand them 
there is One that does ; and though he should 
never discover the theory by which such events 
are shown to be in agreement with all others, 
there is still a harmony which pervades " all 
things in heaven and earth, and under the earth." 

Such is the application of inductive philosophy 
to the mysteries of nature. Let the mysteries of 
revelation be treated with equal justice; and in- 
stead of employing them as objections to its truth, 
you will acknowledge them as essential to its na- 
ture, and portions of its glory.* 

But there are many who object to Christianity, 
not only because they cannot understand the na- 
ture, but because they cannot see the reason, of 
certain things contained in, or connected with it. 
For example : It is well known that God is gra- 
cious and merciful, and desireth not the death of a 

* See an admirable article on Mysteries in religion, in Gregory's 
Letters, vol. i. 



LECTURE XII. 533 

sinner, and that He has all power to save whom 
He will ; and yet it is revealed that without the 
sacrifice of Christ, and without conversion and 
faith, the sinner cannot be saved. Why, it is 
asked, this circuitous method, this expense of suf- 
fering, when a word from the Almighty would 
save the world? An intelligent Christian could 
give many answers to this question ; but what if 
he had none? Would the way of salvation, as re- 
vealed in the gospel, be in any degree less credi- 
ble 1 Shall we refuse to believe the ways of God, 
till He has laid all his reasons before us ? Why 
not as well deny His works on the same indefensi- 
ble ground ? Why believe that a sick man cannot 
recover without a tedious course of medicine? 
God can raise him with a word ! Why cultivate 
the ground, and seek the mediatorial office of the 
sun for the raising and ripening of your grain? 
God can load your fields with harvests without 
such a circuitous process ! Why His power is not 
exerted immediately for these purposes, you can no 
more explain than why a sinner cannot be saved 
but by faith in the sacrifice of Christ, Your be- 
lief in the importance of intermediate steps de- 
pends as little upon the reasons of the divine ap- 
pointments, in one case as in the other. 

Again : you read that the gospel is of inestima- 
ble importance to the happiness of man ; a won- 
derful exhibition of divine grace to sinners ; and 
yet there are hundreds of millions who have never 
heard of it, and it is asked, why, since God is infi- 



534 LECTURE XII. 

iiitely good and merciful, as well as mighty, such 
an immeasurable blessing has not been communi- 
cated to all mankind 1 This question is often put 
as a strong objection to the divine origin of the 
gospel. Were it taught in the scriptures that 
those who have never had the gospel wall be 
judged by its law, the objection would have force. 
But there is no such doctrine. The objection is 
reasonable only so far as there is reason in a crea- 
ture's requiring the Creator to explain His ways, 
and admit him to His councils, before he will be- 
lieve them. Does a philosopher stand on such 
grounds 1 Does he doubt the immense difference 
between the gifts and blessings, the privileges and 
improvements, of a native of England, and those of 
a savage of Kampschatka, because he knows not for 
what reason it was so ordained 1 Does he deny that 
', the former are inestimable, because not universal ? 
Will one refuse to believe that he has a mine of 
gold in his field, or that the gold is worth his seek- 
ing, because all men are not equally favoured 7 
Shall a husbandman despise the genial rain upon 
his grass, because his neighbour's fleece is dry ? If 
God has not seen fit to reveal the reasons for which 
He has distributed the gifts of nature, of provi- 
dence, or of grace with an unequal hand, I find 
nothing to complain of. I can still believe that 
those gifts are from above, and are excellent, and 
distributed under the guidance of infinite wisdom. 
That there are no difiiculties connected w^ith the 
scriptures, and with the doctrines of revealed reli- 



LECTURE XII. 535 

gion, it would be saying too much for the intelli- 
gence, education, and study of the general reader, 
to assert. Until all shall he candid, studious, pa- 
tient, and humble, some will find many difficulties 
in Christianity. If a child, instead of beginning 
arithmetic in the elements, should dive at once into 
the midst of a calculation of algebraic roots and 
powers, he would scarcely escape being stifled with 
difficulties. Thus, however, do most objectors to 
Christianity endeavour to appreciate its doctrines. 
Instead of learning first the first principles, they 
plunge without ceremony amidst the deepest mys- 
teries of the gospel. Is it wonderful that they 
come out, exclaiming : " Who is sufficient for these 
things'?" It is well said: "Objections against a 
thing fairly proved are of no weight. The proof 
rests upon our knowledge, and the objections upon 
our ignorance. It is true that moral demonstra- 
tions and religious doctrines may be attacked in a 
very ingenious and plausible manner, because 
they involve questions on which our ignorance is 
greater than our knowledge ; but still our know- 
ledge is knowledge ; or in other words, certainty 
is certainty. In mathematical reasoning, our 
knowledge is greater than our ignorance. When 
you have proved that the three angles of every 
triangle are equal to two right angles, there is an 
end of doubt ; because there are no materials for 
ignorance to work up into phantasms, but your 
knowledge is really no more certain than your 
knowledge on iiny other subject." 



536 LECTURE XII. 

If it be a valid objection to religion that, to some 
minds, it presents difficulties which cannot be 
solved, then there is no department of human 
knowledge that may not be legitimately con- 
demned. What is more certain than the existence 
of a material universe ? or of the necessary con- 
nexion of cause and effect ? But even in these, 
wise heads have succeeded in discovering difficul- 
ties which it would puzzle much more sensible 
people to remove by a process of reasoning. That 
matter is infinitely divisible, is assumed in science 
as fundamentally certain. That the doctrine, how- 
ever, involves very great difficulties, is palpable to 
all common sense, inasmuch as, to suppose a foot 
measure divided into an infinite number of parts, 
requiring an infinite number of portions of time to 
pass over them, and yet to be passed over in a 
moment, is to make a moment infinite, in other 
w^ords, eternal ; for although it should be said that 
the portions of time would be infinitely small, still 
they w^ould be portions of time, and an infinite 
number of any portions of time must make an in- 
finite duration. Who will pretend that in this, 
there is room for perplexity and doubt ? In the 
mean time, the operations of science, in which the 
infinite divisibility of matter is assumed, proceed 
with as much confidence as if there were no diffi- 
culty connected with it.* 

* " The divisibility, in infinitum., of any finite extension, in- 
volves us, whether we grant or deny it, in consequences, impossi- 



LECTURE XII, 537 

Much is said of the certainty of mathematical 
demonstrations ; but if difficulties that cannot be 
solved are sufficient objections, even here also must 
sentence of condemnation be pronounced. It might 
be shown how trifling are even the definitions of 
geometry, the most exact of all the mathematical 
sciences. Its definitions might be alleged, upon 
no inconsiderable grounds, to be nonsensical and 
ridiculous ; its demands or postulates, plainly im- 
practicable ; its axioms or self evident propositions, 
controvertible, and controverted indeed even by 
themselves. But why are not these things ob- 
jected to the truth of mathematics ? What is 
there in the religion of Jesus more encumbered 
with difficulties ? 

Were the dispositions of the human heart and 
the idols of a sinner's devotion as much opposed 
by the demonstrations of mathematics, as by the 
doctrines of Christianity, it would be just as diffi- 
cult to convince men of the truth of the former, as 
of the latter. The folly of speaking of a something 
that has length without breadth ; of a point that 
has no parts; of lines forever approaching and 
never meeting, &c. ; the futility of basing a certain 
demonstration upon elements so unintelligible and 
impossible, would be trumpeted to the ends of the 

ble to be explicated, or made in our apprehensions consistent ; con- 
sequences that carry greater difficulty, and more apparent absur- 
dity, than any thing that can follow from the notion of an imma- 
terial substance." — Locke on Human Understanding. 

68 



538 LECTURE XII. 

world. The wicked would no more believe a pro- 
position of geometry, than they will now, a doc- 
trine of redemption. The scoffer would find as 
much to ridicule in Newton's Principia as in Paul's 
Epistles.* 

But we do injustice to the good cause in which 
we are engaged by standing exclusively on the de- 
fensive. Infidelity has too long been indulged with 
the privilege of attack. It is the stratagem of 
weakness, to put on a bold front and make a des- 
perate assault. Any arm can strike, but not every 
breast can repel a blow. It is high time infidelity 
were accused and brought to the bar. What proof 
of a single feature of doctrine or of moral principle 
can it produce, after having rejected such evidence 
as that of Christianity ? What satisfactory argu- 
ment for the obligation of any thing connected with 
natural religion ; what reason for believing in a fu- 
ture state; what proof even of the existence of 
God, can be offered as worthy of reliance, without 
a shameful inconsistency, by men who, in the 
immense power of evidence sustaining the divine 
authority of the gospel, can find nothing to con- 
vince them 1 

We have shown that the argument for Chris- 
tianity is strictly philosophical, because entirely 
experimental. It might easily be shown that every 

* See an interesting piece of reasoning, apropos to the above, in 
one of the tracts of the American Tract Society, entitled " Conver- 
sation with a Young Traveller," No. 203. 



LECTURE XII. 53.9 

system of infidelity, so far as it pretends to any re- 
ligious doctrine or precept, is wholly destitute of 
all claim to such a character. What a catalogue 
of theoretical assertions, and unsustained conjec- 
tures, and positive contradictions, and gross ab- 
surdities, and inexplicable difficulties, might be 
drawn up against the most rational of the infidel 
systems ! The Deist professes to believe that the 
light of nature is sufiicient for human guidance in 
all matters of moral obligation; and yet he be- 
lieves that notwithstanding such all-sufficiency, 
some among those who have attempted to follow it 
have contended for the immortality of the soul, 
and others have denied it ; some have maintained 
that God created all things, others that matter is 
as much from eternity as Himself; some, that He 
governs and will judge the world, others that He 
does not concern himself about it ; some, that God 
should be worshipped, others that all wor- 
ship is weak superstition; some, that virtue is 
virtuous and vice vicious, others that there is 
no distinction in principle between them ; that sin 
is but a matter of custom and opinion, and that 
the indulgence of the lowest passions is no more 
to be blamed than the thirst of a fever or the 
drowsiness of a lethargy. 

Some infidels deny that Jesus ever lived, and yet 
they believe that the whole nation of the Jews, 
bitter enemies of Christianity as they have always 
been, acknowledge that they put him to death on 
the cross. Some confess that there was such a 



540 LECTURE XII. 

person, but accuse him of a most barefaced system 
of fraud and imposture ; and yet they cannot but 
concede that his character was eminently pure and 
excellent. Others, to escape such a contradiction, 
maintain that he was a pure, but weak and vi- 
sionary enthusiast ; and yet they acknowledge that 
he composed and inculcated a system of morals 
very far superior to that of the wisest of the an- 
cient philosophers. Infidels profess to believe that 
the apostles of Christ were instigated by merce- 
nary considerations, and yet that they willingly 
suffered the loss of all things ; by ambitious consi- 
derations, and yet they submitted cheerfully to all 
ignominy and shame ! According to infidels, they 
were devoted to a selfish scheme of personal be- 
nefit, and yet were always going about doing good, 
without the least regard to their own convenience 
or pleasure. They were gross deceivers, it is said, 
and yet they endured all sufi'erings, and sacrificed 
theii' lives, in confirmation of their sincerity. They 
were weak fanatics, and yet the strongest and most 
learned minds could not resist the power and wis- 
dom with which they spake. Infidels deny that 
Jesus ever wrought miracles, but cannot deny that 
his bitterest enemies, who had infinitely better op- 
portunities of judging than they can boast, con- 
fessed that he did. Infidels pretend that the pro- 
phecies of the Bible were uothing more than 
guesses, and that all correspondence between them 
and subsequent history was a mere matter of 
chance ; and yet they cannot find, among all the 



LECTURE XII. 541 

guesses in the Bible, a single failure ; while they 
cannot deny that many guesses have succeeded, in 
the minutest particulars, in spite of a proportion of 
chances against them too great for numbers to ex- 
press. Infidels contend that the gospel is against 
all reason and common sense as well as truth; 
they laugh at the efforts of modern apostles to con- 
vert the nations of heathenism to the faith of 
Christ, as visionary and fruitless. Nothing seems 
to them more impossible tlian that such an enter- 
prize should succeed. And yet, according to their 
wisdom, when only twelve missionaries, with none 
of the education, or experience, or human support 
and countenance ; with none of the facilities for 
multiplying books, and disseminating knowledge, 
which modern labourers possess; when twelve de- 
spised, persecuted Jews, undertook a similar work, 
not among ignorant barbarians, but polished 
Greeks ; and when, in less than forty years, their 
cause was coextensive with the known world; 
then there loas nothing iconderful or unaccountable ; 
it was a mere matter of human contrivance and 
enthusiastic perseverance ; the work of men alone, 
and of weak, superstitious, credulous, simple, and 
deceitful men, though the only work of the kind 
since the creation of the world ! 

It were easy to proceed much further with this 
array of the contradiction and difficulties into 
which men are necessarily brought by rejecting the 
evidences of Christianity. But we have said 
enough to show, that if infidels were put upon the 



542 LECTURE XII. 

defensive a little more frequently, they would have 
much less time to be creeping, with poisoned ar- 
rows, around the outworks of Christianity. Let 
them point out, in the belief of the gospel, any 
thing like the contradictions and absurdities in- 
volved in a profession of infidelity, and it shall be 
renounced as unworthy the countenance of a ra- 
tional being. 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



LECTURE XIII. 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES, AND CONCLUDING OB- 
SERVATIONS. 



The external evidences of Christianity, as a sys- 
tem of faith, divinely revealed, we consider to have 
been closed vv^ith the lecture next preceding the 
last. On that subject, we shall offer no additional 
argument. But there remains one very important 
matter of inquiry. 

Christianity and the scriptures are essentially 
associated. Without the latter, we should not 
have received the former. But however insepara- 
ble in the use of their benefits, they are quite dis- 
tinct in the proof of their infallible origin. It is 
one thing to show that the doctrines taught in the 



544 LECTURE XIII. 

scriptures are divine ; and another, that the hooks 
containing those doctrines are divine. The former, 
we think, has been fully established. The latter 
has not yet been attempted. We have proved that 
the books of scripture are authentic and credible ; 
the works of the authors whose names they bear ; 
and correct narratives of such matters of fact as 
they profess to relate. But were we to stop here, 
we should leave the Bible on a level, in point of 
authority, with many other books of the christian 
religion which contain the truth, and, so far as we 
can judge, contain nothing else ; and yet have no 
pretension to any other than a human origin. In 
this case, we should have no ultimate and sure 
appeal for either doctrine or duty ; a door would 
be open for all manner of interference, on the part 
of " man's wisdom," for the perversion and corrup- 
tion of the truth ; the most essential features of 
the gospel, on the easy plea that the apostles, being 
men, may sometimes have misunderstood their 
Master, would be accessible to the most ruinous 
suspicions of overstatement or misconception. 

We have need, not only of a divine system of 
religion, but of a divine teacher of that system. 
The latter was possessed by the apostles in the 
person of Christ, while he continued with them ; 
and subsequently in the special presence and guid- 
ance of the Holy Ghost, whom the Saviour pro- 
mised as a Comforter, to lead them into all truth. 
In place of the privileges thus possessed, what re- 
mains to which may confidently be referred every 



LECTURE XIII. 545 

question of religious doctrine and duty, and by 
which our minds may he safely led to the whole 
truth as it is in Jesus ? Are the scriptures infal- 
lible 7 In other words, are they divine 7 Have 
they been " given by inspiration of God ?" This 
brings us at once to the main point of the present 
lecture — the inspiration op the scriptures — a 
subject which, however eminently important, has 
had so much done, preparatory to its consideration, 
in our previous lectures, that it need not occupy at 
present a large portion of your time. 

The distinct proposition to which your attention 
is called, I would express partly in the language 
of St. Peter : The scriptures came not by the will 
of man : but holy men of God wrote as they ivere 
moved by the Holy Ghost ; or in the words of St. 
Paul : " All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God." 

By inspiration is understood : " Such a commu- 
nication by the Holy Spirit to the minds of the 
sacred writers, of those things which could not 
have been otherwise known, and such an effectual 
superintendency, as to those particulars, concern- 
ing which they might otherwise obtain informa- 
tion, as sufficed absolutely to preserve them from 
every degree of error in all things which could in 
the least affect any of the doctrines or precepts 
contained in their writings, or mislead any person 
who considered them as a divine and infallible 
standard of truth and duty." 
69 



546 LECTURE XIII. 

This definition is perfectly consistent with what 
a critic would regard as a fault of style in a book 
of scripture ; or a philosopher, as scientifically inac- 
curate ; or a rhetorician, as a departure from the 
rules of rhetorical writing. It is entirely compa- 
tible with the evident fact of the several authors 
having written in such various idioms and styles 
as their respective talents, habits, associations, or 
circumstances rendered most easy and natural. 
While, at the same time, it places all the sacred 
writers, however various their modes and minds, 
on the same footing of divine authority, and gives 
to all portions of the Bible an equal claim to be 
received as the oracles of God, thus writing over 
the just interpretation of each single verse the title 
of infallibility. 

In examining into the degree of authority to be 
attached to the scriptures, we are favoured with a 
very direct appeal. We may go to the scriptures 
themselves. Having already established their cre- 
dibility ; we have a full warrant to depend on them 
for a true statement of the words of the Saviour 
and his apostles, Having established also the fun- 
damental doctrine that the Saviour and his apos- 
tles were divinely sent and attested; we have a 
right to rely implicitly on their words, as truth di- 
vinely sealed and certified. Our way, therefore, is 
plain. We must search the scriptures for any 
words of the Lord Je.sus and of his apostles con- 
cerning the subject before us. We have but one 
question to answer : Does the New Testament hear 



LECTURE XIII. 547 

loitness that the several hooks composing the Bible 
icere treated or represented by the Saviour or his 
apostles as divinely inspired ? This determined in 
the affirmative, the inspiration of the scriptures is 
decided, until the whole argument of the preceding 
lectures shall be proved inconclusive. 

I. Let us divide the question, and begin our in- 
quiry v^ith the Old Testament scriptures. 

1st. It is undeniable that the Saviour and his 
apostles regarded the Old Testament with at least 
as much reverence, as did the Jews in their day. 
They reproved the latter for many errors of doc- 
trine and of practice ; for mutilating the scriptures 
by false interpretations ; and for making them of 
none effect through their traditions ; but nowhere 
do we read the least insinuation of their having 
censured the Jews for paying too much respect to 
the scriptures, or for allowing them too much au- 
thority. On the contrary, they evidently joined in, 
most earnestly, with the Jewish mind on this sub- 
ject, and, instead of attempting to unsettle, aimed 
directly at increasing its habit of implicit submis- 
sion to the Old Testament writings. But had the 
Jews been erroneous in the high degree of reve- 
rence with which they regarded those sacred 
books ; such countenance and example on the part 
of our Lord and his ambassadors could not have 
been showed, consistently with the perfect truth 
and openness which marked all their dealings. 

Now, be it observed, that the Jews, in the time of 
Christ, considered the writings of the Old Testa- 



548 LECTURE XIII. 

ment as divinely inspired ; not merely in respect to 
their doctrines, but their whole matter and sub- 
stance. Josephus says, that in his time they were 
universally believed to have been written by men 
" as they learned them of God himself by inspira- 
tion,^^ and w^ere justly believed to be "divine." 
He draws a wide distinction between the histories 
of the Jewish people which were written since the 
time of Artaxerxes, and those contained in the Bi- 
ble , and gives, as a reason why the former had not 
been received as having so much authority as the 
latter, that since Artaxerxes there had not been a 
succession of inspired men. " How firmly we have 
given credit," he says, " to these books of our own 
nation, is evident from what we do ; for during so 
many ages as have already passed, no one hath 
been so bold as either to add any thing to them, 
to take any thing from them, or to make any 
change in them ; but it is become natural to all 
Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to 
esteem those books to contain divine doctrines, and 
to persist in them, and if occasion be, wdllingly to 
die for them."* Hence we see that Jesus and his 
apostles, in coinciding with, and in employing and 
promoting the current sentiment of the Jewish 
people in their days, must be considered as having 
really and in the broadest sense espoused and 
confirmed the doctrine of the divine inspiration of 
the Old Testament scriptures, 

* Cont. Appion, b. i. §§ 7, 8 



LECTURE XIII. 549 

2cl. But, unanswerable as is the above attesta- 
tion, we have a direct assertion on the part of St. 
Paul of still greater importance. Having re- 
minded Timothy, that from a child he had known 
" the holy scrijjtures^^^ which were able to make him 
wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, 
he makes this positive and conclusive declaration : 
" All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and 
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness : that the man 
of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works."* 

Here, then, is the plain testimony of one, whose 
knowledge and veracity we have ascertained, that 
whatever in his time was included under the name 
of " scripture," or " holy scriptures," was of divine 
inspiration. We have only to ask, therefore, to 
what books Paul applied that name. It was a 
name of common use in his day. Josephus and 
Philo frequently speak of " the divine scriptures," 
and " the holy scriptures." It is manifest, there- 
fore, that Paul meant to be understood as asserting 
the divine inspiration of that collection of sacred 
books to which the Jews notoriously applied such 
names ; in other words, the books of the Old Tes- 
tament. He regarded them all as scripture. He 
declared them all inspired. 

Now, that under the same title we have the 
same collection of writings is certain; not only 

* 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16, 17. 



550 LECTURE XIIL 

from the important fact that on this head there is 
a perfect agreement between our bibles and those 
of the whole Jewish nation at the present day; 
but also from the testimony of Josephus, wdio, 
although he has not mentioned the names of the 
several books considered as scripture in his time, 
has given ns tlieir number, and so described them 
that their identity w^ith ours cannot be mistaken. 
He takes care to speak of them " as of divine au- 
thority."* In addition to this, we have the testi- 
mony of the New Testament as to the canon of 
the Old. For besides the books of Moses, which 
the former expressly mentions as of divine au- 
thority, it also specifies almost all the other books 
of our Old Testament as belonging, in the time of 
Christ, to the sacred canon of the Jews. Some 
are omitted, only because the mentioning of any is 
incidental. Nothing but a formal enumeration can 
be expected to be complete. That none are ex- 
cepted against, is proof that all were received by 
the Lord and his apostles. 

Hence, we are fully warranted to believe that 
" all scripture" in the mouth of St. Paul, meant all 
the books of the Old Testament which Jews and 
Christians at present unite in receiving as divine 
oracles ; consequently, we have apostolic authority 
in proof that they were all " given by inspiration 
of God." 

* Cont. Apion, b, i. § 8. 



LECTURE Kill. 551 

Much additional evidence to the same point 
might he added; hut with any who acknowledge 
the argument of the previous lectures, and thence 
believe that whatever St. Paul asserted, as a doc- 
trine of Christianity, is true, the above simple rea- 
soning will be amply sufficient for the divine inspi- 
ration of the Old Testament. 

II. Let lis proceed to the second division of our 
subject, and carry our inquiry to the books of the 
New Testament. 

1st. The insjm^ation of the New Testame^it may 
be naturally and reasonably inferred from that of 
the Old. In this, we argue by analogy. No reason 
can be given why those holy men of old, who com- 
posed the books of the other Testament, should 
have written, not " by the will of man," but " as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost," that does 
not apply with much greater force to the writers of 
the later volume. The economy of the Old Testa- 
ment was to cease at the advent of Christ ; that of 
the New will endure to the end of the world. 
The former was intended only for a single nation, 
and adapted but to a country of narrow bounda- 
ries. The latter was framed to include all nations, 
and is intended of God to be coextensive with the 
globe. The law had only " a shadow of good 
things to come ;" the gospel has " the very image 
of the things ;" the first was a system of types, 
" which stood only in meats, and drinks, and di- 
vers washings, and carnal ordinances imposed, 
until the time of reformation;" the second (the 



552 LECTURE XIII. 

time of reformation being come) is a system of di- 
rect revelation ; the veil has been rent in twain, 
so that it may be said, in comparison with the pre- 
vious dispensation, that we " no longer see through 
a glass, darkly, but face to face." One grand dis- 
tinction of the economy of the gospel is, that it is 
the dispensation of the Spirit. That peculiar fea- 
ture in which its covenant is " a better covenant, 
established upon better promises " — " a new cove- 
nant " — is found in this, that it is a spiritual cove- 
nant ; its promises, its privileges, its duties, its par- 
ties, are all spiritual. Its character, in this re- 
spect, is seen in that stipulation of its Divine Au- 
thor : " I will put my laws into their mind, and 
write them in their heartsJ' So much, therefore, 
does this '' ministration of righteousness exceed in 
glory" all that preceded it, that although there 
had never risen, under the Old Testament system, 
a greater than John the Baptist ; yet " he that is 
least in the kingdom of God (i. e. under the New 
Testament system,) is greater than he." 

Now, is it supposable that, under a dispensation 
so limited in extent and duration as that of the 
law ; so carnal in its ordinances ; so obscure in its 
revelations ; serving only " unto the example and 
shadow of heavenly things ;" the sacred books 
should have been given by inspiration of God ; and 
yet, that under the kiv better covenant of the gos- 
pel, designed for all mankind, and to stand while 
the world endures ; a dispensation so eminently dis- 
tinguished for the outpouring of the Spirit; for the 



LECTURE XIII. 553 

spiritual gifts of its earliest ministers, and the spi- 
ritual duties and blessings of all its members ; we 
should be left to a standard of truth and duty, dic- 
tated only by the wisdom, composed only under the 
superintending care, of fallible men ? Surely the 
inspiration of the New Testament is naturally and 
reasonably inferred from that of the Old. 

2d. The same conclusion necessarily arises from 
the evident inspiration of the apostles in their preach- 
ing and other official actions. 

It was expressly promised by the Lord, that 
when they should stand before enemies, in defence 
of the gospel, they should speak by inspiration of 
God. In such circumstances, their direction was : 
*' Take no thought how or what ye shall speak. 
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
Father which speaketh in you." " The Holy 
Ghost shall teach you in that same hour, what ye 
ought to say." " I will give you a mouth and wis- 
dom, which all your adversaries shall not be able 
to gainsay, nor resist."* We have no reason to 
suppose that these promise of inspiration were 
confined to the special circumstances referred to in 
the passages above quoted. The apostles were 
to be placed in many others for which they would 
be quite as needful. Certain circumstances were 
particularly spoken of by the Lord, because in 
them the faith of his apostles would be parti- 
cularly tried. 

* Mat. X. 19, 20. Luke xii. 12 ; and xxi. 15. 

70 



554 LECTURE X II. 

But inspiration was promised by the Saviour, in 
terms of the most comprehensive kind. A little 
before his crucifixion, when the hearts of his dis- 
ciples (Judas having left them) were greatly trou- 
bled at the assurance that he was soon to be taken 
from them ; he promised to send them a Comforter 
— the Holy Spirit — who should abide with them 
forever. This blessed Person, he called repeatedly 
" the Spirit of truth." He was distinctly promised 
to the apostles, as a substitute, in all respects, for 
the presence, the guidance, the instructions of their 
Lord himself The great consolation of such a 
substitute consisted in his being to the apostles, 
invisibly, just what Jesus had been to them, visibly; 
so that they might consider themselves to be di- 
vinely directed and instructed under his influence, 
in a manner quite as direct and infallible, as if they 
had still the Master's voice to hear, and his foot- 
steps to follow. They were assured that " the 
Spirit of truth" would teach them whatever know- 
ledge their duties might require. " He shall teach 
you all things.^^ " He will lead you into all truihP 
Had they forgotten any portion of their Lord's in- 
struction's 7 " The Spirit of truth^^^ said he, " shall 
bring all things to your 7'emembrance lohatsoever I 
have said unto t/ou" ^^ He shall take of mine, and 
shall show it unto you" Even the knowledge of 
the future was promised to the apostles, by the 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. " He will show you 
things to comeP They were directed to tarry in 
Jerusalem after his death, until they should receive 



LECTURE XIII. 555 

" power from on high" Now all these promises 
are positive proofs that the apostles were inspired 
in their ministry, as soon as the fulfilment took 
place. Thus, when the day of Pentecost was fully 
come, and the Spirit descended upon them, " they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost," and " began 
to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance." By 
this inspiration, they were enabled to preach, in all 
languages, the wonderful works cf God. The ser- 
mon of Peter, on that day, was spoken under this 
influence. By the same help he discerned the spirit 
of Ananias and Sapphira. Their lie was unto the 
Holy Ghost, in as much as it was unto one whom the 
Holy Ghost inspired. Directed by the same Spirit, 
Peter journeyed from Joppa to the house of Cor- 
nelius, and first opened the door of faith to the 
Gentiles. Paul, by inspiration, went forth on his 
mission from Antioch to the lesser Asia ; while, 
" full of the Holy Ghost," he searched the con- 
science of Elymas, the sorcerer, and punished his 
wickedness with blindness. When the apostles, 
and elders, and brethren were assembled in council 
about the question sent up from Antioch for their 
decision ; they consulted and determined as they 
were guided by inspiration of God. " It seemeth 
good to the Holy Ghost" was the solemn sanction 
annexed to their sentence. They claimed to be 
always received as inspired. Their speech and 
their preaching, they asserted, were " in demon- 
stration of the Spirit ;" " not in the words which 
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 



556 LECTURE XIII. 

teacheth." It is expressly declared by St. Peter, 
that his brethren and himself " preached the gospel 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." All 
these statements, and many others which might be 
adduced, abundantly confirm the position, that the 
apostles, in their preaching and other official ac- 
tions, were in the highest sense inspired. 

Hence it would seem to be very naturally and 
reasonably inferred, that when they ivrote for the 
permanent guidance of the churches, they were 
inspired also. Can it be supposed that St. Paul, in 
preaching to the Ephesians or Corinthians, spake 
as he was moved by the Holy Ghost ; and yet was 
entirely bereft of that divine aid, when he sat down 
to the much more important work of composing 
epistles to those churches ? When it is considered 
how entirely all the oral communications of the 
apostles ceased to be remembered, in a short time 
after they were uttered, except as they were re- 
corded in the scriptures; and how their written 
communications to the churches have remained un- 
mutilated these eighteen hundred years ; are now 
circulated in upwards of one hundred and seventy 
languages ; have been read among all people, and 
will continue to be the guide and treasure of the 
church to the end of the world ; can it be believed 
that in these the apostles were left to their own 
fallible wisdom, while guided in the others by 
the inspiration of God 7 Such an opinion would 
be absurd in the extreme. 



LECTURE xni. 557 

It seems to be a necessary conclusion from the 
above premises, that the authors of the New Tes- 
tament were divinely inspired, as well when writ- 
ing for all people and all ages, as when speaking 
to the congregation of a single synagogue. 

3d. If the apostles did not intend to impress the 
church with a belief that they wrote by divine 
inspiration ; they adopted the very means that were 
most likely to lead its members into a most impor- 
tant heresy. St. Paul, in an epistle to Timothy, 
which he knew would be universally circulated, 
published the broad assertion : " All scripture is 
given by inspiration of Godr Now it is worthy of 
note, that the epistle, containing this declaration, is 
generally supposed to have been written after all 
the other works of St. Paul, and but a short time 
before his martyrdom at Rome. At any rate, it 
w^as one of his latest works. The Gospel of St. 
Matthew had been written and circulated at least 
twenty years. Those by St. Mark and St. Luke were 
already in the possession of the churches. The 
same is true of the Acts of the Apostles. We 
know of no part of the whole New Testament that 
was written subsequently to the uttering of the 
above declaration, except the gospel, epistles, and 
Revelation by St. John. 

In connection with this, be it observed, that when 
the primitive christians received an epistle or gos- 
pel from one of the apostles or evangelists, they 
regarded it as a portion of holy scrijJture. By this 
familiar name, it was universally known, and with 



558 LECTURE XIII. 

this high honour, it was always treated. Precisely 
as the writers of the New Testament speak of the 
books of the Old Testament, calling them the scrip- 
tures^ do the christian writers, who were contempo- 
raneous with the apostles, continually quote their 
books. This cannot be questioned. Then, consi- 
der the circumstances of the churches. They have 
in possession and in daily use, a number of writings 
which have been sent them by the apostles and 
evangelists, the greater part of them by St. Paul 
himself. It is well known to the latter, that those 
writings are universally revered and read as holy 
scriptures. In these circumstances, he declares that 
" all scripture is given by inspiration of God." 
How are they to understand him .^ Shall they say : 
"He speaks in that passage only of the Jewish 
scriptures ?" His primary reference was unques- 
tionably to them. But in what sense can his as- 
sertion be true of all scripture, if so large a part 
as that comprising the New Testament came only 
" by the will of man ?" But this is not all that 
the apostles did to promote the belief of the inspi- 
ration of their writings. 

The christian churches were accustomed to ap- 
peal to the Old Testament as an inspired volume, 
A large number of their members had been edu- 
cated in the Jewish faith, and by habit, as well as 
reflection, always associated the idea of divine in- 
spiration with that of a book of scripture. Con- 
sequently, when the writings of the New Testa- 
ment were received ; when they came to occupy, 



LECTURE XIII. 559 

in regard to the christian church, a corresjjonding 
place to that of the Old Testament books in re- 
gard to the Jewish church ; when they were ho- 
noured, by universal consent, with the same title of 
"holy scriptures" as was applied to the sacred 
books of the former dispensation ; it was extremely 
natural that the churches should treat them pre- 
cisely as they treated the older books, and believe 
them also to have been written by inspiration of 
God. That they did thus regard them is indis- 
putable. Clement, bishop of Rome, a contempo- 
rary of the apostles, says : " Look into the holy 
scriptures, which are the true words of the Holy 
Ghost. Take the epistle of the blessed Paul, the 
apostle, into your hands ; verily he did by the Spirit 
admonish you." The primitive christians rejected 
from the canon of scripture certain books, because, 
though true and edifying, they were not inspired 
by the Holy Ghost. They habitually spoke of the 
New Testament as "The Word of God," "The 
Voice of God," " The Oracles of the Holy Ghost." 
Now, in such circumstances, how would the 
apostles, as men of common honesty and candour, 
have acted in case they did not consider their 
writings to be inspired? Knowing the natural 
tendency and the actual state of public opinion 
among the churches, could they have been even 
silent on this subject? Must they not have 
warned their disciples against a disposition so dan- 
gerous, and a heresy so conspicuous ? Would not 
the most ordinary measure of humility and faith- 



560 



LECTURE XIII. 



fulness have impelled them to draw the line of dis- 
tinction, too plainly to be mistaken, between what 
they had written by their own wisdom, and what 
holy men of old had written " as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost T' What course do they pur- 
sue ? Not only do they allow the natural disposi- 
tion of those accustomed to attach inspiration to 
scripture to have its way ; not only do they say 
nothing having the least tendency to correct the 
universal impression of the churches on so vital a 
point ; but they adopt the very course which was 
calculated directly to confirm all their preposses- 
sions. They introduce their writings in a manner 
of authority precisely similar to that of the in- 
spired men of older times. Witness the beginning 
of the Epistle to the Galatians : " Paul an apostle 
(not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ 
and God the Father who raised him from the dead) 
unto the churches of Galatia," &c. Peter, speak- 
ing of the epistles of Paul, as familiarly known 
among christians, expressly numbers them among 
" the scriptu7xs" and puts them upon a level with 
" the other scrijJtures"* which jews and christians 
alike considered to have been written by inspira- 
tion. Paul again speaks of the writings of the 
" apostles and jjrophets " as constituting together 
that good foundation on which christians were 
built, " Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- 
ner stone."t And after Peter has particularly in- 

* 2 Pet. iii. 16. f Ep- "• 20. 



LECTURE XIII. 561 

eluded the epistles of St. Paul among the scriptures^ 
the latter publishes his declaration that " all scrijJ- 
ture is given by inspiration of God." 

If those holy men did not intend to promote the 
belief of the inspiration of their writings ; if they 
were desirous of teaching the churches to make a 
wide distinction between their works, as merely 
human and fallible, and those of Moses and the 
prophets, as divine and infallible; how singularly 
did they mistake the way ; how exactly did they 
inculcate what they wished to contradict, and build 
up what they were bound to destroy ! 

In what manner the primitive churches under- 
stood their instructions, is manifest; and on the 
supposition that the apostles taught that their 
writings were not inspired, it forms a singular proof 
of the great obscurity with which they must have 
expressed themselves. Justin Martyr, a contem- 
porary w ith St. John, says that " the gospels were 
written by men full of the Holy Ghost." Irenaeus, 
a few years later, declares that "the scriptures 
were dictated by the Spirit of God, and that, there- 
fore, it is wickedness to contradict them, and sacri- 
lege to alter them." " The gospel," he says, " was 
first preached, and afterwards, by the will of God, 
committed to writing, that it might be, for time to 
come, the foundation and pillar of our faith." 

Enough, it is believed, has now been exhibited 
to satisfy any reasonable mind that it was the in- 
tention of the writers of the New Testament, and 
of their blessed Master, that the church should re- 
71 



562 LECTURE XIII. 

gard their works as having been dictated and ren- 
dered infallible by divine inspkation. To those 
who acknowledge that Christ and his apostles 
were commissioned and taught of God, this is per- 
fect evidence of the great doctrine at which we 
have been arriving. For those who, after all that 
has been said in onr preceding lectures, shall still 
refuse to acknowledge the Lord Jesus and his apos- 
tles as divinely commissioned and endowed, we 
have no more argument. Much additional reason- 
ing might be offered ; but such is the conclusive- 
ness of what has been adduced, that it may be 
said, without presumption, if they believe not upon 
such evidence, " neither would they believe though 
one rose from the dead."* 

We may now conclude a course of lectures, 
which has already extended far beyond the antici- 
pations of the author. Having arrived at the di- 
vine authority of Christianity, and the divine inspi- 
ration of the scriptures, we have not only a religion 
revealed frctm God^ but an infallible expression of 
its doctnncs and duties. We have the guide, as 
well as the way, to everlasting life — both equally 
certain, equally divine. 

Let us be thankful for such unspeakable gifts. 
Next to the mercy of a Saviour — able and ready 

* For a much more extended and able view of the inspiration 
of the New Testament, see Dick on the Inspiralion of the Scrip- 
tures^ and Lectures on the same hy Leonard Woods, D. D.^ Jln- 
dover. 



LECTURE XIII. 563 

" to save to the uttermost all that come imto God 
by Hhxi" — is the book of the inspiration of God, 
which, as a lamp to our feet, and a light to 
our path, conducts to such a Friend, and teaches 
us, without mistake, all that we must do to be 
saved. 

Let us consider our obligation to study this bles- 
sed book, with most serious attention and care. 
What can be more ungrateful, more disobedient, 
more sinful, in the sight of God, than the total ne- 
glect, or the careless reading of a book which His 
own Spirit indited for our express guidance and 
consolation ? " Search the scriptures !" is the in- 
junction as well of our reason, as of the Lord 
Jesus. " Let the word of Christ dwell in you 
richly in all wisdom," is a command as delightful 
in its obedience, as it is authoritative in its decla- 
ration. 

Let us yield implicit submission to the decisions 
of the scriptures. In them we read the oracles of 
God — the mind of the Spirit — infallible wisdom. 
As inspired pages, such must be their authority. 
It is plain duty, therefore, to bring every question 
of truth or practice to their judgment ; and to bow, 
without a question, or a murmur, or the least re- 
serve of mind or heart, to whatever they require. 
To proceed on any other principle ; to bring any 
thoughts of ours into the least competition with 
the decision of the scriptures ; to submit to one 
portion of the Bible more than to another ; to 
withhold assent to any of its doctrines, till we can 



564 LECTURE XIII. 

see their necessity, or reasonableness, or tlieir con- 
sistency witli certain notions of human wisdom, is 
a practical denial of the divine authority of the 
whole volume, and deserves no other name than 
unbelief. 

Let us search the scriptures daily ; for they were 
made to be daily '• profitable for doctrine, reproof, 
correction and instruction in righteousness." It is 
only when taken as an intimate companion and 
friend, that the Bible throws oft its reserve, and 
appears in all its excellence. Then it speaks to 
the heart, and begins to develope treasures of con- 
solation as numerous as the w^ants of sinners, as 
endless as the grace of their Saviour. We canw^ell 
perceive the hand of God in the structure of Chris- 
tianity, while standing without, and looking only 
upon its walls and bulwarks ; but, like the temple 
of Jerusalem, we must enter within the holy place 
to " behold the fair beauty of the sanctuary ;" the 
fine gold of its workmanship ; and the glory of 
Him " who dwelleth between the cherubim." 
" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear 
him ; and he will show them his covenant." 

Let us search the scriptures with j9?'a?/er; " pray- 
ing always with all prayer and supplication in the 
Spirit," that we may be " filled with the know- 
ledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual un- 
derstanding." The key of the ark, in which are 
laid up the tables of testimony, is prayer. By this 
alone can we get into " the secret place of the 
Most High," and be taught of God. He who, 



LECTURE XTII, 565 

without prayer, should seek to enter Avithin the 
veil, and ohtain a view of the divine glory as it 
shines within the scriptures, would act no less pre- 
sumptuously, than Aaron, the high priest, had he 
attempted, without his brazen censer and his in- 
cense, to pass the veil of the holy of holies, and 
stand before the mercy-seat. " My son," saitli the 
scripture, " if thou criest after knowledge, and 
liftest up thy voice for understanding ; if thou seek- 
est her as silver, and searchest for her as hid trea- 
sures ; then shalt thou understand the fear of the 
Lord, and find the knowledge of God." 



" Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy scrip- 
tures to be written for our learning, grant that we 
may, in such wise, hear them, read, mark, learn, 
and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and 
comfort of thy Holy Word, we may embrace and 
ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, 
which thou hast given us in our Saviour, Jesus 
Christ." 



J 



ERRATA. 

je 22, line 1, for Mahommed, read jyiohamiacd. 
44, " \\,iox perfecly^xQiuX pevfeclhj. 
51 " 16, for hut^ read and. 

62, r 

63, < note, for xi. read ii. 

64, ( 

77, line 19, erase the inverted commas. 
83, note, for Inst.^ read Int. 

• 143, line 4, for such, read these. 

'■ 193, " 28, for (Zei^ajrefZ, read cZespotVcrf. 

• 198, " 29, for occwrrences, read occnj'i'ence. 
217, " 14, for festival., read festivals. 

■ 264, " 4, for he, read i/ie. 

■ 264, " 14, for as utter, read as the utter. 

' 289, " 14, for amhigious, read ambiguous. 

' 299, " 8, of the note, for enrollment, read enrolment. 

' 318, " 20, erase the inverted commas. 

' 362, " 16, for subject, read subjects. 

' 381, " 31, for jiorphet, xe?id prophet. 

' 397, note, for Repertonj, read Repository. 

' 421, line 14, of note, for convict, read convert. 



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